One Of Our Own
by Mystricka
Summary: A serial killer is out there and manages to go unnoticed, until Goren figures it out. What did this killer do that was bad enough to bring SVU and Major Case together? Read on to find out. BA Pairing wsome fluff. I might pair other favs later on! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

One of Our Own

By Mystricka

Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Special Victim's Unit Crossover

Author's Note: I do not own anything from the Law and Order Series. If I did, I wouldn't be writing these, I'd be off abusing my power somewhere. cackles

Don't sue me. I don't own anything. Also, please review to let me know how I'm doing. I like reviews. :) This is my second fanfic, but the first one where I attempt to do a cross over.

As a side note, I'm not familiar with NY so I'm not sure how the precincts numbering works, so the numbers are made up. Just bare with me LOL.

Pairing: There is BA of course :) Later on I might pair some other favorites up, but for now I'm not sure. I'm just going to tell the story and see where my muse takes me. :)

Again, I like reviews, good or bad, because hopefully it will make me a better writer.

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Chapter 1

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"See you later guys." Sally said as she closed her locker at the police station. "I won't think of you all _too_ much on my vacation." Everyone in the squad room rolled their eyes at her. "Have a good weekend with your kids, Larry." Sally said to her partner.

"If you come back sunburnt you know that we're all going to pick at you right?" Larry asked while laughing.

"Ah yes, but that means that I actually got some sun to put on this pasty skin of mine." Sally said while sticking her tongue out at her partner. "See you in over a week!"

Sally had deserved her vacation. This is the first actual one that she has taken since joining the four-seven about 4 years ago. She was looking forward to it very much.

Sally walked into her apartment and put her things down. She wanted to finish packing tonight because she was catching a plane to Florida in the morning.

Then all went black.

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"I swear these all _have_ to be connected." Detective Robert "Bobby" Goren said across his desk to his partner Detective Alexandra Eames. Alex and Bobby have been partner's for over 6 years, although it was a little over 7 month's ago that they had become so much more than that. When Alex was kidnaped earlier in the year, they both realized that time was short. Not too long after that incident they confessed their feelings to each other, feelings that had been festering for a few years. While they've hit a few bumps in the road along the way, both of them were very happy and very much in love.

Alex thought back to when they had told their captain that they were dating.

_"Cap, can we talk to you a minute?" Alex asked as her and Bobby were standing at their captain's door._

_"Sure, come in." Captain Ross said._

_They both sat down. "We have something we need to tell you. You ... you might want to sit down." Bobby said already getting flustered._

_Captain Ross looked bewildered. He sat down and eyed them both._

_"Captain, Eames and I have been seeing each other now for a couple of months." Bobby said extremely fast. So fast that he was almost impossible to understand. Eames just chuckled._

_"Detectives ... you've been seeing each other now for over 6 years. Unless of course you talk to each other and work your cases with your eyes closed." Captain Ross said smiling, knowing full well what they were talking about._

_"What he meant to say is that we have been seeing each other as __more__ than partner's for over a couple of months." Eames said._

_"Ah, I see. Well, while it's not against department policy for partners to be more than partners, I need to know how this will affect your work. I can't have you two compromising any cases. Do I need to split you or can you two actually do this together?" Captain Ross asked them while raising his eyebrow._

_"It's not affected us so far, and we don't think that it will in the future either. We definitely don't want you to split us up." Eames said. "Look captain, we've always known how the other has felt deep down, but never acted on it. Now that we've acted on it, we've realized that it's not really changed how we do our job together. In fact, we think it helps us close cases better now. We've solved seven cases since we've been official, so to speak." _

_Captain Ross paused for a second, which made Eames and Goren hold their breath. They were definitely afraid that he was going to separate them, which is why they waited over 2 months to tell him about their relationship. Suddenly he got up from his seat, went to the door, and yelled for Detectives Logan and Wheeler to come to his office._

_"We were just about to go talk to a perp cap, what's up?" Detective Mike Logan asked. Detective Megan Wheeler walked in behind him._

_"Well, it seems that our two detectives here have finally confessed to what we've known about for a couple of months now." Captain Ross told Logan and Wheeler._

_Goren and Eames both jerked their heads up when that was said and looked around the room very surprised._

_"Come on you two, we're detectives. We detect stuff. We've noticed he's been less cranky and you've been more ... more ... I dunno ... you've been more smiley?" Detective Logan said. Wheeler nodded at the word smiley. "Yeah, smiley." Logan finished without the question that was there a second before._

_Wheeler pulled out a piece of paper she had stuffed in the back of her memo book. She handed it to Logan. "Dammit!" He said. "Cap, looks like you won the bet!"_

_"You bet on us?!" Eames said dropping her jaw. _

_"What you didn't know?" Wheeler asked faking a surprised look. "We all made a bet on the month it would take for the two of you to get together and then tell everyone. I won when you would get together. It's was obvious that your feelings for each other were on your sleeves. I knew it was just a matter of time before one of you actually noticed that." Wheeler just smirked._

_Goren grinned. Eames looked up and saw this. "__You__ knew about this?" Eames asked._

_"I've heard rumor's." He said throwing his hands up in the air. "Like you said, we're all detectives here. I also detect stuff." He made a face at Logan. "Although, rumors of this and actually knowing that the entire office participated in it is two different things." Goren said taking the list from Logan and looking at it._

_Eames looked up at her partner and said, "Hell, and here I thought we were careful about how we acted around each other at work."_

_Captain Ross smiled and said, "If it's any consolation, we didn't find out about it at work." He grinned slightly towards the two detectives._

"_How did you find out about us then?" Goren asked after a couple of seconds passed by._

"_Oh, I have my sources." Captain Ross replied while he opened the door to his office. "Now, everyone back to work." _

To this day, they still don't know how he found out about them.

"Eames." Goren said snapping her back to reality. "This is the fourth one in as many weeks. They _have_ to be connected." Goren was looking at the newspaper. "They are all in different precincts, different parts of the state, but they each look like they have common threads."

"Bobby, don't you think that if they were connected, someone higher up in the food chain _or_ the media would have already brought it to someone's attention?" Eames asked while looking up from the paper work that she was putting the finishing touches on.

"Different precincts and all were posed in a religious manner. Then of course there's the obvious factor. I bet if we looked up their individual case files we'll find even more common threads." He looked into her eyes as he put the paper down which showed her that he was serious about this.

She stared back into his eyes, eyes that she can get so lost in if she's not careful, and realized that he was dead set about this, and normally his instincts _were_ right. "Let's go talk to the captain." Eames said getting up.

They both walked over to Captain Ross's office and went in to talk to him.


	2. Chapter 2

One of Our Own

Chapter 2

A/N: I don't own anything.

Disclaimers note: No matter how much I would like to, I don't own CI or anything characters there in. Trust me, if I did, well, it wouldn't be allowed on TV. Bwahahahaha

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Chapter 2

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"Detectives Benson and Stabler." Detective Olivia Benson said as her and her partner crossed under the yellow tape surrounding the perimeter.

"What do we have here?" Detective Elliot Stabler asked the medical examiner on the scene.

"Jane Doe. She looks like she's been raped. She also smells like alcohol. I'll know more when we get her back to the morgue." The ME said.

"COD?" Elliot asked.

"Prelim looks like strangulation. Another thing you should know is that when we found her, she had her arms crossed over her chest as if she was already in a casket." The ME said.

"Great, a nut. Canvas turn up anything?" Olivia asked the first officer on the scene.

"No. No one heard anything. Those kids over there found the body and called 911." The officer pointed over to the corner where 3 teenagers were standing.

Olivia and Elliot walked over to the kids and asked them a few questions, but of course they didn't know anything. They were skateboarding down the alley and found her body on top of the garbage bags, freaked out, and called the cops.

"Let's head back to the house." Olivia said to Elliot after they had finished interviewing everyone.

"Alright." Elliot said getting out the keys to the vehicle.

Olivia and Elliot had been partners for a little over 8 years. There was an obvious attraction flowing between them, but neither have acted on it. Elliot kept trying to make it work with his estranged wife for their four kids sake. And Olivia understood ... at least that's what she kept telling herself.

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When they arrived back at the police house, their Captain yelled at them before they even had a chance to sit down.

"Benson. Stabler. Fin. Munch. My office now!" He yelled.

All four detectives looked at each other with a confused look and went into his office. They were trying to figure out what they had done wrong when Captain Cragen spoke. "Our presence is required up at Major Case. Turns out the case that Liv and Elliot caught this morning might be part of a serial killing." Captain Cragen grabbed his coat. "Gather your case file and meet me by the elevator."

The four stunned detectives gathered what few items they had on the case and then met up with their captain by the elevator.


	3. Chapter 3

One of Our Own

Chapter 3

A/N: I own nothing!

Disclaimers note: Nope, CI still isn't mine. pout

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Chapter 3

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"Captain Ross, Detective Goren, Eames, Logan, and Wheeler, these are my detectives, Benson, Stabler, Fin, and last but certainly not least Detective Munch." Captain Cragen said as he introduced everyone.

"What makes this case a serial? Nothing recent has hit the SVU logs with anything similar. We don't even know who our victim is yet." Olivia Benson said.

"Please, come in here." Captain Ross said motioning for everyone to join him in the work room where Detectives Goren and Eames had gathered quite a collection over the past few days.

"Wow. Did someone get a little tape happy?" Detective Munch asked looking around the room.

"For the past couple of days, Detectives Goren and Eames have been gathering information. They thought that these _might_ have been connected, but seeing as how they're all cops, we wanted to make sure before we started stirring the pot. They had plans to start re-interviewing everyone today when the body that you all caught came in." Detective Ross said. He then nodded towards Goren to start the introductions of the victims.

"This is Paige Gills. She is an officer at the one-three. She was found 4 weeks ago in the five-zero. She was raped, her entire body was doused in rubbing alcohol, and there were absolutely no forensics to process on her or at her apartment. She was originally a Jane Doe because she didn't have any form of ID on her. While waiting on her fingerprints to run through the system, an officer on another case from her precinct was letting a family member of a body identify someone else. He got the shock of his life when he looked over and saw her lying there. Turns out she was on a 4 day leave and no one from her station suspected that she was even missing, let alone dead." Detective Goren said.

Detective Eames spoke up next. "This is Lacy Tyres." She pointed to the second picture on the board then continued speaking as she pointed out the similarities to the first case. "She was found 3 weeks ago in the Bronx. She's from the five-zero. She was also raped and doused in rubbing alcohol and like the first victim she had no forensics on her or at her house. This one had her badge pinned to her bare chest. She was traced through her badge number. She too was on vacation and not expected back to the precinct for a few days."

Captain Ross spoke next. "This is Jasmine Turner. Found 2 weeks ago, she worked at the station in the Bronx and was found in the seven-five. Raped and doused in alcohol and again no forensics. She was ID'd through her fingerprints."

"And this is Veronica Marsh. Same all the way across, except she had her badge pinned to her chest like Lacy did. She was found last week in the four-seven. She is from the seven-five." Goren said.

"Why in the hell has no one connected all of these before?" Olivia Benson asked completely befuddled.

"Because they were all from different precincts and all had different ME's." Goren felt the need to explain himself. "I tend to read multiple papers from all over the state to keep up with the news and over the course of the month it was like I was reading the same story over and over. We have a serial killer on the loose that is attacking female officers that are on vacation."

"And you think our Jane Doe is a cop?" Elliot asked.

"If this guy follows to pattern, she would be from the four-seven. I placed a call and have a list of 3 officers that are on vacation. I assume your Jane Doe was doused in rubbing alcohol?" Captain Ross asked.

"The ME on scene said that she smelled of alcohol. I assumed he meant liquor. He was going to have Rogers do more tests when he got her to autopsy." Olivia said.

"Was she posed?" Goren asked tilting his head sideways.

Elliot nodded. "She had her arms folded across her chest."

Just then the ME walked in. "I was told that I would find everyone here." Dr. Rogers said. "Wow." She looked around the room before focusing on Goren. "You were right. This is one of the serials's. Her name is Sally Anills. Her prints came up from the four-seven. No forensic evidence on her what so ever. She _was_ completely cleaned in rubbing alcohol."

"That's just great, some psycho is killing cops." Munch said.

"They'd have to be psychotic to kill cops in the first place." Fin added.

"So, if Ms. Anills was found here in our precinct, wouldn't that make our next victim someone ...?" Logan asked.

Both Captain Ross and Captain Cragen's eyes widened. Captain Cragen spoke interrupting Logan, "I'll get on that."

Captain Ross spoke next. "Ok, until this guy is caught, Cragen and I have decided we would all be working together. And so did the Chief of Detectives. He was none to happy to hear about the fact that this has gone on for 5 weeks and no one noticed until now. Goren and Stabler go visit Sally's house. CSU will meet you there. Munch please check Veronica's background. Logan check out Jasmine. Fin the same with Lacy. Wheeler you get Paige. Eames and Benson I want you here looking through all of these papers and putting information together as the detectives call information back to you. I would then like Detective Goren to come up with a profile. I've already called each of the said precincts and they are expecting you all. They want this person caught fast as well, especially when informed of a possible serial killer. Everyone call in every couple of hours to their respective captain to let us know how your doing and what we can do to help. We have ADA Carver and ADA Novak standing by to issue warrants where needed."

Dr. Rogers spoke next. "I'm off to go have a not so friendly chat with my co-workers to figure out how in the hell this bypassed all of us without ever crossing over." They all nodded towards her. She walked out of the room.

Everyone just looked around the room for a minute, then headed out to gather what information they could. In the meantime, an alert was sounded through the precinct telling everyone to hold off on vacations and extended weekend's if at all possible. If anything, for precautionary sakes.


	4. Chapter 4

One of Our Own

Chapter 4

A/N: I own nothing!

Disclaimers note: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, If I owned CI, there would be some hot and heavy action pulling through! ... but seeing as how there's not .. Its not mine. Haha

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Chapter 4

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Both Captains were in Ross's office talking. "You paired Goren with Stabler? Their as different as night and day!" Captain Cragen said.

"I'm hoping that they'll learn something from each other. It's good to change it up every once in a while. Of course, that's just as long as it's not for very long, that way Goren won't go nuts without Eames." Captain Ross said recalling what he had heard about the disaster that was Lynne Bishop while Eames was on maternity leave as a surrogate for her sister.

Captain Cragen nodded.

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When Detectives Goren and Stabler arrived at Sally Anills house, CSU was all ready there. They walked into the apartment and was almost knocked out by the smell of bleach. Just by glancing around the room Goren noticed that there was no visible evidence and according to one of the CSU technicians, there was no invisible evidence either. Goren wandered around the room looking at various items. He found an airplane ticket to Florida on her night stand. "She was going to Florida for her vacation." He said to Stabler who was looking over by the windows. "She was also reading a mystery." Goren nodded towards the book on the night stand near the plane tickets.

"I don't see any visible means of entry unless the perp happens to be spider man. We're 4 flights up with no fire escape. There's 2 more floors above us." Stabler said. "Unless of course he had a key, because CSU said that the lock wasn't picked."

"Her keys are here so that does mean that she made it home." Goren said pointing out her keys as he entered the kitchen. "Mail's here waiting to be mailed out. Looks like she paid her bills before she left, just didn't mail them yet."

"There isn't anything here, let's go talk to some of her fellow officers at the four-seven." Stabler said.

"Not yet. I want to look around some more." He was not used to having a male partner. Sure he's worked with Logan before, but normally Eames wasn't that far behind. Goren was glad this was only going to be temporary.

"In that case, I'll go see if the neighbor's have heard anything." Stabler said looking at Detective Goren then walking out the door.

Goren walked over and looked at all of the windows in her apartment again. They were locked from the inside. He then walked over to one of the CSU technician's. "Have you Luminal'd yet?"

"I was just getting ready to Detective, even though I'm not sure how much good it will do. This place reeks of bleach." Mitch replied.

A couple of minutes later he sprayed Luminal over the entire room. The technician and Goren saw that it lit up with an even light, which meant that bleach was used to clean up the entire floor. It wasn't even possible to tell where the biggest concentration was, which is what Goren was hoping for that way he could get an idea of something ... anything. He has never seen a crime scene this clean. "Is there anyway you can set up the floor in grids and swab it? This guy has killed 5 cops so far and while I know that it's a long shot that any DNA will be found that's not degraded, a long shot is all that we got."

"Sure detective. Right away." Mitch replied while gathering the stuff he was going to need.

Detective Goren wandered out into the hallway to see Detective Stabler walk away from a door. "Well, she was quiet, no one ever saw her with a guy, she baked a great apple pie, the last sighting of her was 2 nights ago, which was Friday, and no heard a thing at all during the weekend." Stabler said as he put his memo book into his pocket.

"Let's go pay a visit to her friends at the station then we'll go talk to her family." Goren said as they walked to the elevator.


	5. Chapter 5

One of Our Own

Chapter 5

A/N: I own nothing!

Disclaimers note: pouts Why oh why is CI still not mine? pouts some more

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Chapter 5

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Detective Munch visited Veronica Marsh's apartment. It was still sealed off with crime scene tape. He followed protocol orders to break the seal. The first thing he noticed when he went in was the smell of bleach. Looking around, he could tell that CSU had been there. There was finger print dust everywhere. He looked around each room occasionally making notes. She had an extensive library of books that covered pretty much every topic that could be thought of. Looking in her bedroom, he saw a study guide to the detectives exam. Opening her closet he looked over her clothes. "Nothing too outrageous." He muttered to himself.

Munch's phone rang. "Munch here."

"Detective, this is the CSU tech that you requested. I'm standing outside her door." He said.

Munch walked over to the door to let the CSU technician in.

Showing Munch his ID, the tech walked in. "I'm Peter Doss. I was requested to be here in case there was something else you wanted processed."

Detective Munch nodded. "There is a detectives exam in the bedroom. I want you to see what prints you can get off of it." He also pointed out a couple of other things. The CSU technician wandered off to do what he was told.

After about an hour and a half, the CSU tech left and Munch resealed the door per protocol. He then proceeded to go interview the neighbors.

"I've already answered questions about that cop. I'm late for work. If you wanna know what I said, talk to the people that interviewed me the previous dozen times." A man said as he walked out of his apartment and locked his door.

Detective Munch stood in his exit path. "You can either answer them again for me now and be a few minutes late for work, or we can go down to the station and be a lot late for work!"

The man looked at him and growled. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

Munch looked at his list of tenants that was given to him and said, "So, Mr. Tustip, what did you know about Veronica Marsh?"

Munch got about a page or two of notes from each tenant on the floor. They were all annoyed, just like Mr. Tustip, by the fact that they were being bothered again. However, unlike Mr. Tustip, they were all co-operative and had plenty to say about Officer Marsh. Pulling out his phone after he was finished interviewing people, he called the captain to tell him that he was headed to the precinct.


	6. Chapter 6

One of Our Own

Chapter 6

A/N: I own zip!

Disclaimers note: CI isn't mine. If it was, well, I'd be off occupied elsewhere. :)

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Chapter 6

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"Hi. I'm detective Mike Logan from Major Case. I'm investigating the death of officer Jasmine Turner." Detective Logan said to the captain of the Bronx police station.

"I'm Captain Zeke. Nice to meet you. I got a call from your captain earlier today. He said that Jasmine was part of a serial killing?" The captain sat down looking concerned.

"It seems that way. What can you tell me about her? Any problems?" Logan asked taking out his memo book.

"She seemed to be well liked by practically everyone. Always on time, stayed over a lot to make sure her paper work was done by the end of the day. Her partner was Jenny Johnson. Both of them patrolled the business's at night to make sure everything was locked up. In her 5 years here, she's only been shot at once and drew her weapon twice." Captain Zeke started digging in his desk then produced a folder. "These were her recent filings."

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Logan asked taking the folder.

"I wouldn't know but her partner might. I"ll let you two talk in here. I've put her on desk for now. She took her partner's death hard, but it got worse when I told her that she might have been part of a serial. When you find whoever did this, I do believe that our precinct would like to get a piece of him." Zeke said.

After a couple of minutes, a woman in her late 30's introduced herself to Detective Logan.

"Officer Johnson, I'm sorry about your loss. I know first hand what it's like to lose a partner." Detective Logan said remembering back to his early career years.

"Thank you sir. Anything I can do to help, I will." Officer Jenny Johnson sat down.

"So what can you tell me about Jasmine? Was she seeing anyone? Any problems on your patrol?" Logan asked while writing in his book.


	7. Chapter 7

One of Our Own

Chapter 7

A/N: I own nadda! Please review and let me know how I'm doing!

Disclaimers note: CI isn't mine. It belongs to other people. The story is mine, but not the characters.

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Chapter 7

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"Mr. and Mrs. Tyres?" Detective Tutuola asked while standing on the porch of Lacy Tyres parents.

"Yes, can I help you?" Mr. Tyres asked.

"I'm Detective Tutuola. I'm investigating your daughter's death. May I come in and talk to you two for a few minutes?"

"Sure, please come in." Mr. Tyres said.

After everyone was sitting down in the living room, Lacy's mother spoke first. "I thought the other detectives were handling the case. Did something new develop?"

"There have been a couple of new things turn up. Nothing that I can discuss at the moment. Can you tell me a little bit about your daughter?" He asked. He was very careful not to mention that she could have been part of a serial killer's prey.

"She's been on the force for about seven years." Mrs. Tyres said as tears rolled down her face. "She loved it, much to _our_ chagrin. We wanted her to do something ... that was safer. She is ... was our only child."

"Was she seeing anyone?" Detective Tutuola asked.

"She used to date a cop. They broke up a little over a year ago. She wanted to settle, but he wasn't ready. His name is Jacob Unip. Far as I know, they parted on good terms." Lacy's father said.

"How about more recent? Have you heard anything at all?"

Both parents shook their heads no.

"I understood she lived here? May I have your permission to look around her bedroom. It will give me some background information on her and might help me get a step closer to the killer."

"She had an apartment over the garage. She very seldom came into the house. She has a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and everything else that she needs up there. If you think it will help, you can go ahead and look around. The other cops told us we could go back in a couple of weeks ago, but we've only been up there once. It's just too hard right now." Mrs. Tyres said.

Detective Tutuola looked around her apartment making notes on various things. After an hour, the detective told her parents that he would be in touch.

Mr. Tyres walked Fin out to his car. "You know, we always expected a visit saying that she was killed in the line of duty, not that some psycho killed her on her weekend off." Mr. Tyres made a face. "That was the first 4 day weekend she'd had off in over a year. I almost wished she would have been working, maybe she would be alive now."

As the detective got into his car, he told Mr. Tyres that he would try to keep them up to date as much as he was allowed to. Inside his car, he called the captain to tell him that he was headed to Lacy's precinct.


	8. Chapter 8

One of Our Own

Chapter 8

A/N: I own zilch! Please review and let me know how I'm doing:)

Disclaimers note: CI isn't mine. It belongs to other people. The story is mine, but not the characters.

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Chapter 8

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Detective Megan Wheeler knocked on Captain Conners' office door. Captain Conners was the head of the one-three's police station house.

"Captain Conners, I'm Detective Wheeler. I was told you were expecting me." Wheeler said as she entered his office.

"Yes. Please close the door and sit down. You're here about Officer Paige Gills right?" The captain asked.

Wheeler nodded.

"Well, the five-zero has her case since that is where she was found. I was not happy letting them handle the case, but I did realize that I would probably be biased during the investigation. However, I'm not thrilled that her case was passed over to another department again." Captain Conners said.

"I can see how you would be upset, but I promise Major Case will take good care of her. Captain Ross told you that she seems to be part of a serial killers killing spree right?" Wheeler asked.

"Yes. I wasn't thrilled about that either. I understand we are trying to keep it from the press?"

"Yes sir. For as long as possible." After a minute had passed, Wheeler continued speaking. "The five-zero sent everything they had to Major Case already. I'm here to see what you and her partner could tell me about her. Also, I need to pick up any remaining files that she may have been working on that you have come across since handing everything over to the five-zero."

"Follow me." Captain Conners said getting up.

They walked across the room. He stopped in front of an almost empty desk. Opening a drawer, he pulled out 3 folders. "These are the last things she was working on. I didn't know about them until her partner gave them to me a couple of weeks ago. I put them in her desk ... well I'm not sure why I put them in her desk instead of mine, but I felt they belonged there. There's nothing in here but a few parking tickets, a deli robbery, and a few vandalism reports."

Detective Wheeler took the file. A man then approached them. "You wanted to see me captain?"

"Yes Henry. Henry Stevens, this is Detective Wheeler from Major Case. Wheeler, this is Officer Henry Stevens, Paige's partner. Detective Wheeler is helping to investigate Paige's murder. Please tell her anything she needs to know." With that said, Captain Conners walked off.

The officer and detective sat down and talked for about an hour.


	9. Chapter 9

One of Our Own

Chapter 9

A/N: I own zilch! Please review to let me know how I'm doing!

Disclaimers note: CI isn't mine. Wish it was, but it's not.

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Chapter 9

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Detective Alexandra Eames and Detective Olivia Benson were sitting in the work room in the Major Case office. It looked like a tornado had gone through there. They had files everywhere. At some point in time, they had drug 3 rolling boards into the room to help post information and pictures on each victim.

"Okay. All were sexually assaulted." Eames said.

"All were posed with their arms across their chest." Benson said.

"All were found in alley's on top of garbage bags as opposed to under them." Eames said.

They went back and forth like this for hours. They kept adding to their notes and adding things to the boards as well. Finally Eames asked, "Want some coffee Olivia?"

"Yes. That would be great." Olivia replied while stretching.

A couple of minutes had passed when Eames returned carrying coffee.

Captain's Ross and Cragen walked into the room where Eames and Benson were working not long after she had sat down.

"Everyone has called in. Their heading back here for an early dinner. Write down what you ladies want from the Chinese place down the street."

"Seems like you two have spread things out a bit." Captain Cragen said admiring their work so far.

"Yeah. We figured that everyone else is going to bring back useful information and that we would need more room to compare and contrast the cases." Benson replied.

About 30 minutes later the detectives started reappearing.

"Hey ladies. I come bearing presents." Munch said as he pulled out his memo book and a stack of files about 3 inches thick.

"Gee, just what we always wanted." Olivia said smirking at him.

They straightened up the work room to make room for everyone else because when Munch went to sit down, he discovered there really wasn't any place to do so. The next person to arrive was Wheeler.

"You look like you had fun." Eames said.

"Don't get me started." Wheeler replied sitting down.

Fin and Logan came about 15 minutes later. And about 20 minutes after that, Goren and Stabler appeared.

"We were going to send out a search party for you two." Fin said as Elliot sat down next to Olivia.

"Goren had to look at _everything_. It took us forever every where we went. No offense." He nodded in the direction of Goren while smiling.

"None taken. It's just my nature. Eames puts up with it quite well." He said sitting down next to her.

Eames smirked at her partner. "Every once in a while, I will have to reign him in."

Bobby threw his hands up in the air. "Someone has too."

Everyone laughed. Captain Ross who had entered with Cragen a minute prior to that remark said, "If that isn't the truth, then I don't know what is."


	10. Chapter 10

One of Our Own

Chapter 10

A/N: I own the clothes on my back and that's about it. Please read and review me!

Disclaimers note: Sadly, I've not launched my attack plan to take over CI yet, so alas, it is not mine.

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Chapter 10

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Around 7 PM, Ross came into the work room. "Call it a night everyone. We'll pick up tomorrow with fresh eyes."

Most everyone nodded. Fin, Munch, Logan, Wheeler, and Stabler got up to leave. As Elliot was going out the door he realized that Olivia wasn't with him. "You coming Liv?"

"Yeah, I want to finish this page first. Wait for me?" She asked.

"I"ll be by the elevator's." Elliot said.

Goren and Eames were huddled over a couple of folders when Olivia stood. "Are you two coming?"

Goren looked up. "You can go ahead. We normally work late."

"Are you sure? I don't care to stay." Olivia said.

"Go ahead. We won't be too much longer." Alex replied.

"Okay. Goodnight." Olivia said walking out towards the elevator's.

---------------

"Ready?" Elliot asked his partner.

"Yes. Let's go. It's been a long day." Olivia said.

After getting in the vehicle, Olivia looked over at Elliot and asked, "So, how did you like working with Goren?"

"Let's put it this way. I'll never take you for granted again. I wanted to kill him. He's so ... strange. He kept touching everything and he asked the strangest questions. During the visit to her apartment he double checked me and kept ordering CSU around. He did, however, let me do the interviews." Elliot said venting.

"That was nice of him." Olivia smirked.

Elliot shot a glare at his partner. "That wasn't even the worst of it. At her parents house, he let me do the talking while he wandered around and poked at everything. Every once in a while he would speak up and ask a question. _Then_ at the four-seven, I wanted to deck him. He asked the most obscure questions, and the questions he asked her partner ... yeah. How in the hell does Eames put up with him?"

"She told me that before she came along, he went through partners every 5 or 6 months." Olivia commented.

"I can see why. So why does _she_ stay?" Elliot asked his curiosity getting to the better of him.

Olivia didn't respond right away. She thought back to how she saw the two detectives act towards each other. She saw the looks they gave each other when they thought no one was looking. She's stared at her partner enough to know that look. The look that said it was more that just admiration towards her partner. "A lot of reasons I'm sure." She finally replied.

Elliot dropped Olivia off at her house and told her he would see her in the morning.


	11. Chapter 11

One of Our Own

Chapter 11

A/N: I own the clothes on my back and that's about it. I like reviews!

Disclaimers note: CI ain't mine!

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Chapter 11

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About an hour after Olivia had left, Eames looked at her partner. "Let's go home Bobby. We're both tired."

Bobby nodded. "My place tonight?" He asked.

"Of course." Alex grinned at him.

Bobby put a few things in his binder while Alex straightened up the room a little. Then they walked out of the office. During the elevator ride to the basement Alex leaned up against Bobby, who out of instinct put his arms around her. Just before the elevator door opened, they pulled apart. They got into her car, then proceeded to drive to his apartment.

The entire ride there, they talked about the case as Bobby developed a profile in his head.

What neither of them realized is that they were being watched.


	12. Chapter 12

One of Our Own

Chapter 12

A/N: I don't own anything. This chapter is rated "M"ish for BA fluffy-goodness. Please read and review!

Disclaimers note: No matter how much I would like to, I don't own CI.

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Chapter 12

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They arrived at Bobby's apartment. He headed to the kitchen to make a snack for the both of them. She headed to the bathroom to change into something more comfortable. A couple of minutes later, she appeared around the corner. She had on sweat pants and one of his t-shirts.

"You look ... breath taking." He said pulling her close to him.

"I doubt that." She said looking up into his eyes. "Of course, it is nice to hear."

With that said she pulled his lips down to hers. After a couple of seconds, the kiss intensified. In one swift motion, Bobby picked Alex up and placed her on the counter. He pushed himself into her, moving from her lips to her neck.

Alex moaned slightly. She pulled him as close to her as she could.

She loved the feel of him, the taste of him, everything about him. She has never been this much in love before and on some level, it scared her. But on another level, it completely enthralled her.

_She remembers the first time they had made love. It was better than she ever imagined it could be with him. And trust me when I say that she had been imagining it for several years. _

_She remembered that he kept wanting to wait, he wanted to make it perfect. And he didn't disappoint. Two months into their official relationship, he brought her to his apartment. There were rose petals leading to his bedroom. In there, there was candle light, wine, chocolate, and of course the most important thing ever. There was him._

_Now Bobby is a big man, but he is the most gentle person in the world. He took his time, making sure not to hurt her. He took his time getting to know every inch of her. She returned the gesture, taking her time getting to know every inch of him. He made her feel all of him and took his time about it. Their very first time together lasted well over five hours._

_It was everything and more that she wanted it to be. It was everything and more that he ever hoped it would be._

As Bobby kissed Alex's neck, he let his hands wander down to her hips. He felt her hands around his neck, running her fingers through his hair.

_He also remembered back to their first time making love. He had wanted to drag her to his bed for ... well ... for as long as he could remember. The only thing that held him back for 2 months after they had started dating was his desire to make it perfect._

_It was their 2 month anniversary. He snuck out while she was interviewing a suspect to fix his place up._

_He remembers the look on her face. He remembers every small detail about that night. He remembers every inch of her body, how she tastes, how she smells, and how she feels. He also remembers never wanting that night to end._

_That night, he gave himself to her fully. He allowed full access to his soul, which is something he has never let anyone see. Sure, he has had his flings in the past, but none of them meant anything. Not even the woman that he had dated for 3 years during his stint in narcotics. But Alex does something to him. She awakened him and that night, their first night of love making, he knew love. Honest to God true love. And he never wanted to lose that. And he knew that as long as she was his, he never would._

Alex pulled him into her. She was teasing him by lightly rubbing herself up against his clothes, which were becoming very tight.

About five minutes after they had started kissing, the microwave went off interrupting them.

Pulling apart, they looked at each other and smiled. Bobby lifted Alex from the counter. They finished preparing their snack.

About 30 minutes after they had ate, she leaned over and kissed him and told him not to stay up late.

Before Alex had came into his life as a more than just a partner's basis, he would only get about 3 hours of sleep if he was working on a case. Now that she's a fixture in his life, he wants to spend what time he can with her.

He finished writing down what he was thinking about the case and about 10 to 15 minutes after she went to bed, he followed pursuit.

Changing into sweat pants, he left his shirt off then crawled into bed next to her, lying on his back. Instinctively Alex rolled over and draped her arm over her teddy bear and rested her head on his chest. She drifted off to sleep like that. Bobby wrapped his arms around her and he then fell asleep with a smile on his face.


	13. Chapter 13

One of Our Own

Chapter 13

A/N: I don't own anything. Please read and review!

As a side note, this chapter was a pain in my side to write. It's long and it's about the case. There really wasn't any place to break it up in the middle either. That's not that bad part though. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to get the wording right, it just wouldn't work. I had to make a chart like Goren does in this chapter just to keep all _my_ facts straight. So hopefully this makes sense. Hehe

Disclaimers note: Sadly, CI isn't mine.

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Chapter 13

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The next morning when Olivia and Elliot arrived at Major Case, Alex and Bobby were already there.

"Please tell me that you two left last night?" Olivia asked while looking around the room. She noticed that a ton of files were spread out all over the table.

"We've been here for a little over an hour." Goren replied while pointing to fresh coffee and bagels. "Help yourself."

"Don't mind if I do." Elliot said grabbing a bagel.

By 8:30 am everyone was in the work room. Both captains joined them shortly after everyone had arrived. After the detectives were seated, Captain Ross spoke first. "Okay. Since we're here and not out in the field today, we need to compare and contrast information. This will, hopefully, tell us which direction to focus the investigations on." Goren stood up to go write on the boards as Captain Ross spoke. "Goren and Stabler, what can you tell us about Sally?"

Elliot grabbed his notes and some files in front of him. "Sally has been a member of the NYPD for almost 4 years. By all accounts from her friends at the station, this was the first time she had actually taken a vacation." Elliot said.

Bobby looked over at Elliot slightly annoyed because he spoke first. Alex smirked at this.

Elliot continued speaking. "Her service record was great. She's had to draw her weapon a handful of times, but never fired a shot. She's had the same partner since she began her career. They were _not_ having a relationship." Everyone looked at him as he said that. He then shot a glance at Goren. "He asked. I didn't."

Mike Logan snickered.

"Anyway, her partner said she was single, but had only been so for a little over 8 months. Her ex-boyfriend was a cop in Jersey."

Goren then spoke up. "Her apartment was completely cleaned with bleach. I had CSU grid the apartment and swab it on the off chance the bleach missed something."

"I'm sure that technician loves you." Fin said.

"He's asked them to do stranger things." Eames commented.

"So, we're still waiting on the results from her place." Bobby said without missing a beat. "She was heading to Florida for her vacation. She was an avid reader. I looked in her closet and didn't see any party clothes there. She was very modest, so there is a pretty good chance that she didn't go out much. She's never been married. No kids either. She was also an only child."

"According to her neighbors, she was friendly and quiet. There is an elderly lady on her floor she would run errands for." Elliot added.

Goren finished writing on the board. Moving to the next board he looked at Detective Munch.

"Veronica was an officer for 6 years. She had an unremarkable record. Technically she's had 2 partners, but the first one retired a month into Veronica's first year. She's had the second one ever since then. Her partner said her last boyfriend was over a year ago."

Munch glanced through his notes while Goren wrote on the board. "She was studying to take the detectives exam. I had CSU bag it on my way through the house. I could still smell the bleach that was used in her apartment, which meant that there was a lot of it used. Her parents told me she had a twin sister that died in a bike riding accident when they were 7 years old, so effectively Veronica was an only child."

He flipped through his memo pad some more. "Her closet consisted of jeans, her uniform, and 3 ballroom type dresses. Within a minute of my first interview, I ascertained that her neighbors were not happy to see me. I did get to flex my wonderful power of persuasion on one guy though."

Captain Cragen rolled his eyes. Munch shot a glare back towards his captain then continued speaking. "Like Sally, Veronica was quiet and only one neighbor had remembered seeing a man, but that was about 6 months ago. Utilizing my detective skills I saw that 1 interview was different from the original that took place. It was my disgruntled fellow, but it was only slightly different. The difference could be attributed by his excitement to see me or to his memory. I do look forward to going back and pestering ... I mean talking to him again to see which story he wants to stick to. Everyone did agree that she was a very nice young woman."

"What did her ex-boyfriend do?" Eames asked.

"Her best friend said that he was a firefighter."

"Anything else?" Goren asked.

Munch glanced at the board. "You know, now that I think about it, she did have a lot of books. Her apartment was 3 flights up, with no elevator mind you, and her vacation length was 4 days. Far as I could tell, she wasn't going to spend it anywhere special though."

Logan spoke up next after Goren finished writing down what Munch had said. "Jasmine lived by herself in an apartment. She was an only child. I visited her apartment but the scene was released 3 days before I got there. However, her parents had just arrived and were trying to pack her things up to take back to their house. So that left me with the pictures and reports that CSU had done. Her apartment was cleaned with bleach. There were no forensics there. From the pictures that were taken, I didn't see any club hopping clothes. It didn't even look like she owned a dress."

Mike took a drink of coffee while he waited on Goren to finish writing.

"You know, I _can_ listen and write at the same time." He said without turning around.

"Not all of us are multi-taskers like you." Mike said partially grinning. He put down his coffee cup then continued reading his notes. "She's been on the force for over 5 years. Her record is also unblemished. She's had the same partner since she started. Her last boyfriend was 9 to 10 months ago. He was an EMT. From what her parents told me, she was just going to spend a relaxing week at home. Her vacation was for a week. Her neighbors said she was sociable and friendly. Her captain said she was well liked at the precinct. "

After Goren had finished writing, he stood up to straighten out his back. "Next." He said moving over to a new board.

Fin was the next to speak. "Lacy Tyres was a member of the NYPD for over 7 years. Her record was spotless. Hell, according to what I've read so far, she's never even fired her weapon. She too has had the same partner since she started, but when she first began her career she did request a transfer. The captain talked her into sticking it out for a couple more months. After that time had passed, she withdrew her request. According to her parents, her last boyfriend was over a year ago. He was a cop, but they parted on good terms."

Fin plundered through his memo book. "She lived in an apartment above her parents garage. Her parents remembered it smelling like bleach. They saw it before CSU got a hold of it with their chemicals and said that it was the cleanest they had ever seen her place. When her TOD had been established, her parents were visiting friends upstate, so no one heard anything. She was an only child. She didn't have any children."

Fin flipped through some pictures taken by CSU. "It doesn't look like she had many books. Her parents let me walk through her place. Since we're talking about clothes, she didn't have anything even remotely fanciful."

"Fanciful? Since when do you say fanciful?" Olivia asked laughing.

"Since now." Fin said as he picked up a couple of papers. "No one really had anything bad to say about her. Her partner said she was nice, but if needed, she could turn on her tough side."

After Goren finished writing under Lacy's column, he took a drink from his coffee cup that Eames had just sat down for him without even thinking about it. The Major Case detectives didn't even bat an eyelash at this because they knew that the two detectives were involved. The SVU detectives however did not know this and looked strangely at this exchange between partners. It was if they were mind reading each other. Goren then looked at Wheeler who started speaking, which brought most everyone out of their dazes.

"I'm glad you all seemed to have pleasant experiences at the station houses you visited." Wheeler said annoyed.

Both captains raised their eyebrows at Detective Wheeler. "Was someone un-cooperative?" Ross asked.

"He wasn't so much un-cooperative as he was pissed."

"Who's he?" Ross asked.

"Captain Conners." Wheeler continued speaking before Ross could interrupt her. "He was upset because Paige's case had been passed to another department. He calmed down after he vented for about 20 minutes. He did apologize before I left about how he acted."

Ross settled back down after he heard about the apology.

"You should have smacked him upside his head. That's what you do to me when I vent and you're in my line of sight." Logan quipped while grinning.

"Yeah, but unlike you, he's important. I can't smack an important person!" Wheeler quipped back.

Logan shot a hurtful look towards his partner. He thought about saying something about his incident that put him on Staten Island for many years, but instead he just laughed with everyone else.

Megan picked up her memo book. "Okay. Paige has been an officer for 5 years. Her record was clean, but she was involved in a shooting, which was later declared a good shoot. She's had the same partner since she started. He denied any involvement with her, but I sensed that he wasn't totally honest with me about that. So I asked around a bit and everyone I talked to said that they were partners and that was it."

She flipped through her memo book in her hand and stopped on a page. "Her partner said that she broke up with her ex-boyfriend 6 or 7 months before she was killed. He _was_ a cop. She had caught him with a hooker while he was on duty."

"Ouch." Elliot said.

"Her vacation time was for a week and she planned on spending some of it with her parents up in Albany. Her apartment was on a second floor. I stopped to see if I could look around. There were a lot of boxes there. Since the crime scene had previously been released, her parents were packing up her stuff. Her mom told me that they had kept procrastinating packing it up because they were in denial. She was an only child, but she did have a step-brother. She was, however, estranged from him. I did see 3 boxes of books packed. Her clothes were already packed and I didn't see any CSU pictures of her closet. Her neighbors said she was helpful. She would often pick up an extra carton of eggs and a gallon of milk for the 80 year old lady down the hall, who by the way gave me some amazing cookies."

"And you didn't bring us any?" Fin asked looking hurt.

"Nope. They were gone by the time I hit the city limit." Wheeler replied while grinning.

"Okay." Goren said moving back from the board. "Wait. What type of cases were they investigating when they were killed?" He asked moving back towards the board.

"Paige and her partner had given out a few parking violations. They were responders to a deli robbery. Also, they were looking at a few vandalism complaints." Wheeler said.

Fin started to speak when Wheeler interrupted him. "Hold on ... I know it's here somewhere." After shuffling through 3 folders, she found what she was looking for. She looked up and saw that everyone was staring at her. "I knew there was another case in here. Her and her partner also removed 2 children from a drug user's house with a social worker."

Fin glanced over at Wheeler first to make sure she was finished. Satisfied, he then spoke. "Lacy and her partner were called out to a bank robbery that was connected to a Laundromat robbery. Also, they responded to a child abuse case."

"Jasmine and her partner had answered 3 domestic abuse calls as well as a call to take a statement from a prostitute that was beat up by her John. Those were what she had files on anyway." Logan said.

Munch picked up a file. "Let's see. Veronica was working on a hold up. Also, her and her partner were first responders to a kidnaping."

"And Sally had a body dump as well as a domestic dispute." Goren said while writing.

Elliot raised his eyebrows. Goren responded without turning around. "I did a lot of reading this morning."

Eames just grinned.

"Can you two ladies tell us anything that you might have discovered yesterday?" Cragen asked.

"Not too much more than what's already been said. The killer _seems_ to have a never ending supply of bleach, rubbing alcohol, gloves, and condoms. But we figured that even though it seemed that way it didn't make it so. Therefore, we thought about checking stores and credit card receipts to see if we can find anyone that bought this unique combination of items. We were going to check around the immediate area of the victim's apartments first. However, that is going to take a long time." Alex said.

"Also, the garbage bags that the perp displays the victims on belong to the victim, so there's no need to attempt to follow the bags. We tried cross referencing names that came up during the investigations to each other but no luck so far. Of course, we also didn't have all this information either." Olivia said pointing to the board.

Goren wrote down a couple of things that the girls had said then took a step back to look at the massive amount of information that he had written down. "Well, I see quite a few similarities." He said as he sat down between Alex and Elliot.

"First off, none had worked less than 3.5 years and no more than 7.5 years. All had unblemished records. All were, more or less, only children and all of them had no children of their own. Their last breakup was from 6 months to well over a year before their death. All had the same partner and as far as we know, none were involved romantically. No apartment was on the first floor, and none seemed broken into. From what we can tell none of the officers visited the party scene. All were nice, friendly and helpful. There were no forensics on the bodies or at their apartments. The bodies were posed in a religious manner on top of the victim's own garbage bags. And ..."

Goren stopped speaking mid sentence. Everyone looked up at him. Goren attempted it again. "And all ..."

Goren's eyes opened slightly as a realization hit him. "Eames, you're brilliant!"

He got up and walked out of the room, but before he got far, he came back and said that he would be right back.

All of the SVU detectives looked at him like he just grew a second head. The Major Case detectives didn't even bat an eyelash at this.

"What did you say that was so brilliant that caused him run out like that?" Munch asked.

Eames laughed. "It's hard to tell. He does that a lot, actually. He'll be back after he's checked on whatever crossed his mind."

Less than 10 minutes later he returned. He closed the door and walked over to the board.

"Our killer is smart." Goren stated. "He knows forensics inside and out. He made sure all victims's were relationship free. He made sure all were going to be on vacation when he killed them, that way they would not be missed for a while. He used that time to clean everything up. The bodies were then displayed in alley ways that way they _would_ be found. Two of the women had their badges placed on them as his way of being flashy, but he didn't put them on all of them for fear of someone actually figuring out that they were all connected. However, he knew that when the murder made it to the papers, the detail about the badge would be omitted, therefore it wouldn't be connected as a serial, at least by the press."

"When I left a couple of minutes ago, I checked something in our database on a hunch. Eames said that just because it seemed one way, doesn't make it that way. Veronica's boyfriend finished the police academy, but before he started working as a cop, he decided that he wanted to become a firefighter. Jasmine's boyfriend became a cop for 2 years right after he left the army. However, he decided he could do better as an EMT, which is what he was when he and Jasmine were together. It _seemed_ that they were all in the service professions, but like she said, not everything is as it seems. All of the ex boyfriends are cops or ex-cops."

Bobby pointed to the area on the boards that contained their recent case files. "The domestic angle that is contained in each officer's open files is a coincidence." He placed an 'X' next to that column on the board. He continued speaking as he sat back down next to Eames. "Our guy has issues with female cops that enter into relationships with other cops, but for whatever reason, the relationship fizzles. He holds his grudge because of the way he's been rejected in the past. My guess is that in his mind, he is seeking revenge, not only for his honor, but for the honor of their ex's, even if they don't know about it. He makes sure that there is at least 6 months break up time to verify that they don't get back together. That was probably his own personal time line. My guess is that he's killed many times before and if we expand our search, we'll find more cop killings with this signature. It bothers me because this guy is seeking his revenge and having fun all at the same time all the while managing not to get caught. But what bothers me even more is that he _has_ to have access to the victim's entire life, their vacation requests, their files, and their love lives."

No one wanted Goren to say what they thought he was going to say. And from the look on his face, he didn't want to have to say it either. He took a deep breath thinking for a couple of seconds before he spoke again, and when he did speak, it was barely a whisper.

"Our cop killer ... is a cop."


	14. Chapter 14

One of Our Own

Chapter 14

A/N: I don't own anything. Please read and review!

Side Note: Geez, I thought Chapter 13 was a pain in my side. Well it was, but this one was a pain in my other side. I had to make sure that I didn't repeat every little thing that had already been said. Hopefully this doesn't sound like a replica of the past chapter. I'm hoping the next chapter won't hurt so bad because I"m running out of sides for their to be pains in! LOL

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine.

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Chapter 14

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"Detective, you can't be serious?" Ross asked. He was offended at the _notion_ that a cop killer could be a cop.

"I wish I wasn't." Goren replied.

"We should get Dr. Huang in here to double check this. You could be wrong." Stabler said.

Goren looked highly annoyed but he felt Eames' hand graze his knee under the table. That had an instantaneous calming effect on him.

"I've been wrong before," Goren admitted, "and I seriously hope that I'm wrong now, but I don't think I am."

He took a deep breath as he stood up to go back to the boards he had been writing on.

"Okay. Let me explain it this way. Our killer had a girlfriend that was a cop. She was probably his first victim. Just by looking at this layout from these 5 victims alone, that would make him a cop or an ex- cop." He pointed to the row of the ex's profession's.

"Our killer's girlfriend probably had an unblemished record and she was more than likely the friendly, helpful type of person. She might have had the same partner since she started the police department as well." He said pointing to those 3 rows on the boards.

"I'm unsure about whether or not she was an only child or if she was involved romantically with her partner." He drew some question marks next to those two rows.

"Their relationship ended for whatever reason. He gave her 6 months to come back to him. When she didn't, he got pissed. My assumption is that after he killed her, he realized that he had gotten away with what he had done, and this excited him beyond belief, so he took it upon himself to become a vigilante of sorts."

Goren pointed to the area on the board where he wrote that all victims were raped. "He rapes them because it casts a shameful end on their lives. He see's it as the same shame that was put on him when he was dumped, the same shame that was put on the victim's ex boyfriends when their relationships fell apart. He poses them because it's his way of confession, his way to allow himself to move onto the next victim."

He took his seat next to Eames again. "Using what little bit of information we have at this time, this _screams_ an inside job. Lay people don't have access to this type of information. Our killer was also cunning enough to illicit personal information that won't be in a file or computer from the victim's friends, the victim's ex-boyfriends, or even the victim's themself."

Munch interrupted Goren which caused some annoyed looks to pass to him by most of the people in the room. "And how do you know the domestic angle is a coincidence?"

"This killer has perfected his technique over time. However, he still has to take a little bit of time to research each victim to ensure that he's gathered the right information. He needs at least 1 week to verify that they are indeed going to take their vacation time they had requested off. That eliminates 3 of the 5 victim's with the domestic angle because these cases were obtained a day or two before the officers' death's. There's not really any way that the killer would have noticed this due to the amount of detail in the planning of these murders, he is going to need a day or two to prepare for his big event if he doesn't want to get caught."

"I wonder how he picks the victim's." Megan said out loud.

"My guess is that he picks several women that have a history of dating cops. A lot of people date within what they know, so I'm sure it wasn't that hard of a choice. He then narrowed it down to his own parameters." Goren pointed at the board. "Vacation requests have to be put in about a month before the requested date so that it can be approved, which means that he takes his list of narrowed down women and cross references it with vacation schedules. People are always requesting time off for something or another, so sadly, that list isn't very short either. Using those lists, he narrows it down even further and eventually set's his sights on his victims. He know's at least 3 to 4 weeks ahead of time who he is going to pick."

"For probably the only time in my life, I'm glad my record isn't spotless." Olivia said half smiling.

Elliot's looked up at his partner when she said that and chuckled.

"With our do-er killing cops then leaving their bodies in a precinct that he plans on taking the next victim from, how did he go on without being noticed before? I mean, if I was investigating a murder of a cop from another borough, and one of my cops got killed, and the signatures are the same, I would like to think that I would take notice." Captain Cragen said looking very disgruntled.

"I'm willing to bet that before now, he's not left them in the straight line like he has this time. He's probably left them all over the states, no two bodies within a 100 miles of each other that way he would be sure that they wouldn't be connected. The fact that he has left them in a straight line tells me that's he's getting bored. It tells me that he wants to see how far he can push it before someone connects them as a serial." Goren said.

"Well doesn't this just suck." Munch said tossing his pen on the table.

"With this guy being a cop, and the fact that you canceled the majority of the vacations from this precinct, isn't it possible that you indirectly and unintentionally sent a message to the killer saying that we're onto his game? Won't that make him move onto another precinct or out of state?" Eames asked looking towards the two captains.

"Ahh, but as long as none of _you_ are the killer, he shouldn't know that we know it's a cop, which I'm still not entirely sure I'm willing to believe yet." Captain Ross said.

About half of the room looked at Goren when Ross said that. Goren looked around bemused. "When would I find the time?" He asked which brought out a couple of snickers in the room. "Actually, I'm hoping that he won't move on yet. I'm hoping he sticks around because he's curious to see what we know. I mean, like Eames said, he knows that we have to know something because of the vacation cancellations."

Before anyone could say anything else a noise rumbled through the room. "Sorry." Eames said blushing. "I"m a little hungry."

Captain Ross looked at his watch. "Be back in about an hour. That will give all of us time to get some fresh air and clear our minds. And I know I don't need to remind you about this, but keep your mouth's shut about this case."


	15. Chapter 15

One of Our Own

Chapter 15

A/N: Please read and review! A little light hearted chapter before the nitty gritty of the case comes back.

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. I don't own anything

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Chapter 15

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All 8 detectives headed across the road to the café. After they were seated they ordered their food.

"Excuse me a moment." Eames said getting up to head to the ladies room.

After a minute, Goren also excused himself. When Eames came out of the bathroom, Goren was standing there.

He pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around him. "I needed that." He said smiling down at her.

"Not as much as I did." She replied while leaning up to kiss his soft lips.

Very seldom did they give any type of indication that they are together during work hours, but when a stressful case hits, sometimes the best cure for a bad, frustrating day is a simple hug during a quick break. They both smiled at each other before pulling apart, then headed back to the table together.

The 4 visiting detectives threw some questioning looks towards them as they sat back down, but none of them actually said anything.

While waiting on their food, Elliot noticed how Goren and Eames acted towards each other. This morning, before everyone started arriving, he could have _swore_ that he saw love in both of their eyes. However, once work began, all he saw was professionalism. At least, he _think's_ that's all he saw.

When the food arrived, he continued to watch them, to see how they interacted. He's not even sure why he was so interested. It wasn't like it was any of his business. But now that the two detectives were in a relaxed setting, he think's that he can see the look of love again, and not just in their eyes, but also by their actions.

Elliot smacked himself mentally. He loved his ex-wife, and he loves his kids very much, but for whatever reason, he's afraid to get involved with his partner, even though he know's that he is in love with her. He's afraid of how his kids would feel about it, even though they all like her. Hell, he's afraid of how Olivia would feel about it, because he doubted she felt the same way towards him. Yes, he knows those exchanges between Goren and Eames very well because there are often times when he would catch himself looking at Olivia like that, or thinking about her in ways that he shouldn't be, lest he get a black eye. He laughs with everyone at a joke that Fin and Munch just told. He shakes off his suspicions because it's probably all in his mind anyway, I mean, can partner's being more than just partner's successfully work?

But what he doesn't realize is that he's not the only one that noticed the look of love between Goren and Eames. Olivia noticed it as well and was thinking the same thing as her partner.

"You should make Elliot tell you about the time he chased a perp through the sewers." Liv said laughing at her partner as she touched his arm slightly.

Elliot blushed. "I am not telling that. That was not a good day." He said recalling the incident in his mind.

"You're telling us?" Munch said. "We're the ones that had to smell you for the rest of the day."

Everyone laughed.

Mike then told a couple of stories, and so did Alex, which had everyone laughing.

Looking at the time, they realized that they needed to get back to the office. They all got off of the elevator on the 11th floor where Major Case was located. Goren, Eames, Benson, Stabler, and Logan headed straight to the work room. Fin and Munch went to the captain's office. Wheeler grabbed some more forms out of a filing cabinet that they would need for the afternoon.

About 15 minutes later, everyone had gathered back into the now seemingly small room.

"Okay. Here's the game plan for the rest of the day." Ross said. "Goren, you and Stabler go visit our friends in forensics. See what all they have done so far. I want Eames and Benson to start a search for similar cases, both solved and unsolved. Let's make sure that this isn't a copy cat. After you finish with New York, expand to other states."

"Cap, I'd like to take another go at Mr. Tustip since his statement differed from the original." Munch said.

Captain Cragen nodded.

"And I'd like to talk to Paige's partner again. I have a couple more questions for him." Wheeler told Ross.

Captain Cragen turned towards Fin and Logan. "You two go back to your victims' friends and see if anyone had been snooping around that shouldn't have been. Wheeler, since you're going to be at the one-three, you do the same."

They dispersed after they had their afternoon's assignment's. Before they had completely disappeared, Ross told them to check in every couple of hours.


	16. Chapter 16

One of Our Own

Chapter 16

A/N: Please read and review! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I actually thought I had posted it already. I'm working on the next chapter now. :)

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. I don't own anything so if you sue me, you'll get a ton of debt!

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Chapter 16

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Hearing footsteps, the CSU technician glanced up from his microscope. "Detective Stabler. Detective Goren. What can I do for you today?"

"The Anills case. Anything turn up forensically?" Stabler asked while looking into a jar that held some sort of foul smelling liquid.

"We are still analyzing the swabs we took at her house. We're only about half way through them now." The tech glared at Goren before speaking again. "In three grids we found a smidgen of blood. It's too degraded for DNA but it is the victim's blood type."

"Which grids?" Goren asked while looking at the pictures that were taken of the crime scene.

"These 3 right here." He indicated to the area near the door.

"Anything else?" He asked.

"Not really. We didn't even find the victim's fingerprints in her own apartment. The perp done a stellar job of cleaning up. We even checked the toilet flush handle. Nothing."

"Dammit." Afer pausing a moment he looked at Stabler and said, "We need to go back to the crime scene."

The ride over to Sally Anill's apartment was mostly quiet. Goren wrote in his notebook while Stabler drove.

"So ..." Stabler said.

Goren look at him strangely. "Yes?"

"What do you think going back to the crime scene is going to accomplish?" Stabler asked curiously.

"I won't know until we get there." Goren replied while making more notes.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.

--------------

Eames and Benson were typing away at their computers' searching through files. It wasn't looking good. The first 15 minutes of searching had turned up 4 more possible matches.

"I wonder how long this guy has been at this?" Olivia asked.

"I hope not long, but sadly my gut tells me otherwise." Alex replied as she sighed. "Found another possible." She wrote down the case number on her notepad before resuming her search.

After they were finished looking, they would pull up the individual case files to look and see if they matched or not.

-------------

"Hi. I'm Detective Munch. I'm looking for Tustip. I was told he worked here." Munch said showing his badge to the construction foreman.

"Grab a hard hat and I'll take you to the part of the building he's working on." The foreman replied.

"Miss me?" Munch asked as he tapped Eric Tustip on the shoulder.

"God. It's bad enough you harass me at my place, now you harass me at work too!" He exclaimed not bothering to hide his contempt for the detective.

"Let's step out of the construction zone. I just had a couple of follow up questions for you." Munch said dragging Eric to the parking lot.

He leaned up against the Detectives car and lit a cigarette. "Now, what is it you want?"

"I noticed a couple of inconsistencies with your statement. When was the last time you remember seeing Veronica Marsh?" Munch asked.

"It was a ... a Thursday."

"Which Thursday moron?" Munch asked slightly annoyed.

"The Thursday before her long weekend started."

"And how did you know she was going to have a long weekend?" Munch looked him up and down. "You don't look like someone she would just share personal information with."

"That's where you're wrong. I'm quite the ladies man." He said slicking his hair back.

"Yeah, and I'm the Pope!"

"Fine. I overheard her on her cell phone talking to someone about how she was going to spend her 4 day weekend resting and reading. I heard her mention something about an exam as well."

Munch looked at him strangely.

"It's 3 flights up to our floor, which I'm sure you know. I was behind her in the stairwell while she was talking."

"Alright." Munch said writing in his memo book. "Now, for my second question. I asked you if you had seen anyone suspicious in the days leading up to her murder. You told me no, but when the original detectives asked you the same question, you said yes. I want to know which answer you would like to use this time."

Mr Tustip sighed. "Look, I was trying to get to work. I assumed that you would just use what I said the first time anyway. Figures I'd actually be interviewed by a cop that pays attention to what he's doing. Yes. I saw a man, 30 to 40 years old, on the floor about a month before she was killed. I thought he may have been a new neighbor, so I said hi to him. The only reason I remember him at all is because he didn't respond back to me, which I thought was rude. He had a blue cap on so I couldn't see his face."

"What was he doing?"

"Just standing there staring into space. Anything else?"

"Yes. Before she was killed had anyone asked you any questions at all about her? Maybe the time's that she worked or if she lived with anyone?"

"Actually, yes. About 2 weeks before she died, a man asked me if she had a dog. I told them that I never heard a dog barking from within her apartment. I asked him why he wanted to know. He told me that he heard one barking at night and wanted to complain to the super because he couldn't sleep, but wanted to make sure he had the right apartment to complain about."

"Had you seen him before?"

"I think so, he looked familiar. I don't know where from though."

"Was it the guy that you saw before?"

"I don't think so, but like I said, I never got a good look at his face. Can I get back to work _now_?"

"Go on." Munch replied while pulling out his cell to call the captain.

------------

"Detective Wheeler, any new developments?" Captain Conner's asked.

"I was wondering if I could talk to Officer Henry Stevens again. I have a couple more questions for him." Wheeler said avoiding his question.

"Sure. He's at his desk." Captain Conners said nodding in the direction of where he was sitting.

"Officer Stevens." Wheeler said.

"Detective Wheeler. Any news on my partner's killer?" He asked.

"Can you take a break and go for a walk?"

"Sure." Henry popped his head into the captain's office then met Wheeler at the door. "I assume you wanted me by myself for personal questions?"

Wheeler nodded.

They walked away from the police station into the tiny park across the street from the one-three. After they took a seat on a bench, Detective Wheeler spoke, getting right to the point. "I know that you said that you and your partner weren't sleeping together, but my gut says different. Now, I can understand if you didn't want to say so before because you don't want your personal life the talk of everyone, but our profiler needs to know everything if we want to catch this person."

Stevens looked at Wheeler for a minute as if thinking but didn't say anything.

"While I can't promise, I will do my best to make sure what you tell me doesn't make it back to your captain if that's what your worried about." Wheeler said nearly in a whisper.

"We used to sleep together." He finally said while sighing. "We had been partners for about 7 months when it happened. Well, when it happened the first time. We slept together 4 times before we realized it was affecting how we were doing our job. So, we sat down one night and decided to just be friends." He paused. "Turns out she was one of the best friends I ever had. Her ex-boyfriend was actually someone I introduced her to. He and I went through the academy together."

He laughed which caused Wheeler to look at him oddly.

"After they broke up she told me to keep my day job, that I was _never_ to play match maker again."

Wheeler smiled. "Did anyone else know about your prior _activities_?"

"About 3 months afterwards, we came clean to our captain. We had waited a while to show him that we could still work together and not kill each other. He wasn't thrilled, but he was okay by the fact we had worked it out. But other than him, no, we never told anyone, not even her ex."

Wheeler nodded. "Thank you for being honest. I will tell our profiler to be as discreet as possible with this information."

"If it comes out, then I'll deal with it. It was a long time ago anyway. However, I do appreciate your trying to keep it on the down - low."

Megan grinned at the words 'down - low' then asked, "I also wanted to know if you noticed anyone hanging around lately asking questions that shouldn't have been?"

He thinks for a couple of minutes. "I don't recall anyone unusual around. And I don't recall anyone asking questions about Paige. If I had, that would have been the first thing out of my mouth after she was killed."

"Alright. Thank you for your time. I'm going to head back inside to talk to your fellow officers to see if they saw or heard about anyone asking about her." Wheeler said getting up.

"Detective Wheeler, I know that you can't tell me about the investigation, and that you can't promise you'll get the guy, but please promise you're doing all you can do to catch him."

Wheeler nodded.

They both walked back into the precinct.

--------------

Mike Logan knocked on Cindy Strauss's door.

"Who is it?" Came a voice through the door.

"I'm Detective Logan. I'd like to speak with Miss Strauss regarding Jasmine Turner." He held his badge up so it could be seen through the peep hole.

Miss Strauss opened the door. "Please, come in."

"Thank you."

"Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water?"

"No thank you, I'm fine." Logan replied.

"Please sit down." They both sat at the kitchen table. "Is there any news on who killed Jasmine?"

"Actually, I'm hoping you can help me. Her partner tells me that you are her best friend." Logan said.

"We'd been best friends since junior high school. After graduation, we both went into the police academy, but because of health problems, I was unable to finish. I became a 2nd grade teacher instead." Cindy took a deep breath. "Jasmine used to come to class and talk to the children all the time. They loved it when she came by."

Logan nodded. "I was wondering if she ever mentioned if anyone was following her?"

"She never said anything about it if there was and that is something that I'd like to think that she would tell me."

"Had anyone approached you and asked any questions about her before she was killed?" Logan asked.

Cindy thought for a second. "I don't recall anyone asking anything about her before she died, just a lot of questions afterwards."

"Had she been acting different in any way before she died?"

"Not that I could tell. I saw her 3 days prior. She seemed fine to me."

Logan closed his memo book. "Thank you for your time. I'm sorry about your loss."

"Thank you detective. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Actually, you helped plenty." Logan had stepped onto the porch when she spoke again.

"Please do what you can to catch her killer. Sometimes it gets so hard to go to work because the kids always ask if the police caught the bad person that hurt Jasmine. I would like to be able to say yes to them one day."

"We're trying our best. Have a good day ma'am." Logan said walking down the sidewalk to his car.

-----------

Fin knocked on the door of Officer James Perkins, Lacy Tyres partner.

A little boy answered the door.

"Hi! I"m looking for your daddy. Is he home?" Fin asked.

"DADDY! THERE'S A BIG, SCARY GUY AT THE DOOR!" The little boy said running back into the house.

Fin laughed out loud.

Mr. Perkins appeared around the door. "Detective Tutuola, what can I do for you? And sorry about Ryan. He's at the age where everyone is big and scary." He motioned for the detective to come in.

"It's alright. I'm sorry to bother you at home. Your captain said you had today and tomorrow off. I just had a couple of quick questions about Lacy."

"Sure, let's go into the den."

After they were both seated Fin spoke. "Has anyone approached you and asked anything about Lacy's history or personal life?"

"Not that I recall. I wouldn't have told them anything anyway. If I had, Lacy would have kicked my ass from here to the next state."

Fin laughed. "Yeah. My partner is like that, so I purposely do it to annoy him."

(Crash)

"Umm ... Excuse me a minute." Perkins ran through the house to investigate the noise.

After a couple of minutes had passed, he returned. "And I thought that the terrible two's were bad. The three's are about to turn what's left of my black hair gray." He sat back down. "Every once in a while Ryan will ask when Lacy's coming over. I've tried to tell him, but he doesn't understand yet."

"Do you and your wife have Lacy over often?"

"We had her over about once a week. It was sort of a routine. Her and my wife became really good friends."

"I have another question. Did Lacy ever hint that she was being followed?"

"She didn't say anything to me if she was."

"Did she ever go out or anything?"

Perkins raised an eyebrow at that question.

"I'm not implying anything, it's just that I didn't see any party clothes or bar clothes in her closet." Fin said rather quickly.

"No, it's okay. Just part of the job. No. She didn't drink alcohol. She said she was allergic to something in it. She would go out with us after work occasionally, but she was strictly a water with lemon kind of girl."

"Okay. Thank you very much for your time."

As Fin was leaving, he looked at James and said, "Oh, and not to scare you or anything, but it doesn't get any easier." Fin nodded towards the toddler playing with a ball.

They both laughed.


	17. Chapter 17

One of Our Own

Chapter 17

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: Food poisoning sucks. To make it up to you all for being patient with me, I should be posting more than one chapter today:)

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. I don't own anything ... at all.

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Chapter 17

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Detective Stabler opened Ms. Anills door. Stepping into the room, he glanced around briefly before turning to shut the door. Suddenly, he felt something hit him over the head.

"Ouch!" He yelled as he glared at Goren. "Where did you come from? I made it a point to look around for you before I shut the door." He rubbed his head where he'd been hit. "Hell, I didn't even hear you come up behind me."

Goren grinned, obviously proud of himself. "I was standing there." He replied pointing to the area around the corner, just out of sight of the door. "The guy came out from hiding while she was closing her door and hit her over the head to knock her out. CSU found the blood right where you're standing."

"Okay. I have two problems with that scenario. The first being that there was no evidence that she'd been hit over the head. She was strangled. The second problem I have is that she's a cop. She would have fought back." Elliot said still rubbing the back of his head.

Goren thought for a couple of minutes while looking around the room.

"Well, she didn't fight back for the same reason you didn't. She was surprised and whatever did take her down, did so on the first hit. And as for the first problem, the blood that CSU found had to have came from somewhere."

"Could have been where she was raped. That often leaves blood."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. There would have had to have been a lot of blood in order for CSU to have raised anything in spite of the bleach."

Stabler saw Gorens eyes open a bit as he pulled out his phone. "Rogers, I need you to check something for me on Sally Anills." He moved away from Stabler unconsciously while he talked, which meant that Stabler heard very little of the conversation until he heard Goren say, "We'll be there after we finish up here."

"Care to share?"

"Eventually." Goren said while looking around the room, just as he had done the first time.

Stabler leaned against the wall. "You know, if I knew what you were looking for, I could help you."

"I'm not looking for anything. I'm just ... looking."

----------

Munch was sitting in the office of Branchland Properties. He was waiting on the landlord to come back with some paperwork.

"Here you go detective. There was a complaint made about a dog by a Mr. Chad Summers." The landlord handed the papers to Munch.

"This was 8 month's ago. Wasn't there anything more recent?"

"I'm sorry. This is all I could find."

"Is there any chance you could have misplaced it?"

The landlord shot a glare towards the detective. "I'm sure I didn't. I even had my secretary help me look. That's what was taking us so long."

"Do any current tenants in that building have any dogs?"

Picking up another list, the landlord shook his head no. "The last tenant with a dog moved out about 3 months ago."

Nodding, Munch stood and shook his hand. "Alright, thank you very much."

"Anytime Detective."

------------

Benson and Eames had just walked out of Ross's office. Searching five states had came up with 54 possible matches. Not all victim's were cops, but it was possible that they all had the same do-er because of the signature of rubbing alcohol.

Ross had told them to start deciphering those cases before searching more states. That would give them an idea as to the extent of this guy's history of killing people.

Fin came back shortly after they had started digging into the files. Captain Ross told him to help the detectives, but he said that he had gotten a call from ADA Casey Novak while he was driving back into the city. Casey said that she needed him and Munch to prepare testimony for a rape case. They weren't supposed to testify until the end of the week, but Casey said that they were needed tomorrow. Ross told him to go ahead and go to the ADA's office.

"Tell her I'll send Detective Munch over as soon as he get's back and updates us on what he's found."

Fin nodded and went and gave Olivia and Alex an update. He also left his notes behind in case he forgot to mention something. He then headed off to the elevator.

Munch got back to the office around 4:30 that afternoon. He too gave an update to the two detectives that were up to their necks' in folder's. "I'll leave you my notes, but good luck deciphering my short hand." He said grinning towards Olivia as he walked out the door.

Wheeler arrived around 5pm. "I hate that drive." She said sitting down in an empty chair to help Benson and Eames go through the many files that still lay in front of them.

"At least your drive has some scenery to look at. Mine has buildings and a hell of a lot of traffic on it." Logan said joining them.

About 2 hours later Eames excused herself. She went into the hallway to call Goren.

"Goren." He answered.

"Hey. Where are you two at?" She asked.

"We're almost back to the office. Anything wrong?"

"No. Just wanted to let you know that Olivia and I are the only ones here. Captain Ross sent everyone else home about 20 minutes ago."

"We'll be there in about 15 minutes."

"Alright. Be careful." She said hanging up the phone.

"They'll be here in about 15 minutes." Alex said re-entering the work room.

"I don't think I can look at these any more tonight. I think I'm going cross eyed. Did they say what was keeping them?"

"No." Alex said while helping Olivia straighten up the room a little bit. After they were finished there, Alex used her key and locked the room.

Her and Olivia were making idle chat about the case when their partner's showed up. Bobby put a couple of things in his binder from his desk then helped Alex put her coat on. The four detectives rode in the elevator to the basement together.

Exiting the elevator, Bobby and Alex said goodnight to Olivia and Elliot.


	18. Chapter 18

One of Our Own

Chapter 18

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: Just a short chapter! Don't beat me up!

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me, all I own is a cat, and she is very skiddish!

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Chapter 18

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"Where have you two been all day?" Olivia asked Elliot.

"Mostly at the victim's apartment." He filled her in on what transpired after they had left the office that afternoon. Then he added, "Goren hit me over the head." He said rubbing the still tender spot.

Olivia instinctively reached over and felt the back of his head. "No knot. I always knew you were hard headed. Didn't you tell him that I was the only one that was allowed to hit you over the head." She grinned towards her partner.

"Say's who?!"

"Me, of course!" Olivia said smirking.

After a couple more minutes had passed Elliot spoke again. "Liv, is it okay if I crash on your sofa bed again tonight? I really don't feel like driving home."

"You know it's alright." She smiled towards him. He never needed to ask to stay over and sleep on the couch, but he always did. It was sort of a ritual they had going with each other. She once teased him that she was going to start charging him rent to use the couch because he used it more than she did. That had gotten a quarter tossed at her because he had said that that was about all her couch was worth. And that remark had gotten a pillow tossed back at him.

"Won't Kathy miss you?" She asked after a minute of silence had passed between them.

"I doubt it. Things aren't going so well for us. I'm at my wit's end. Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps me there are our kids." He replied.

Olivia nodded. She knew nothing needed to be said.

"So, what's for dinner?" He asked as he pulled into a parking space near her house.

"Pizza because I am _not_ cooking." Olivia said while laughing as she unlocked the door to her house.

-------------

"I'm taking you to my place tonight so I can cook dinner for you." Alex declared turning her car on.

Bobby grinned. "Only if I can help." He shot a pleading look towards her.

"We'll see." Alex said pulling out onto the road.

"So, did you have a good day?" She asked reaching over and taking his hand.

"It was a busy day. I wish it was you that was with me today instead of Elliot. You would have been more fun to hit over the head." He grinned.

"Bobby! Why did you hit him?"

"It was just a little experiment." He said sheepishly.

Alex rolled her eyes as she drove to her place.


	19. Chapter 19

One of Our Own

Chapter 19

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: This chapter is rated "M"ish again. Nothing too graphic. There was so much case going on that I needed some B and A loving:)

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me, I don't own anything!

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Chapter 19

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Dinner for Alex and Bobby consisted of chicken and mashed potatoes.

"Not a bad dinner." Bobby said pulling Alex down on top of his lap.

"Someone's feeling awful naughty tonight." She said as she felt his lips on her neck.

"How very astute of you detective." Bobby mumbled into her neck.

Alex climbed off of his lap which made him pout just a little towards her. She took his hand and drug him to her bed. Well, drug may have been to strong of a word, considering he beat her into the bedroom.

"You know, anxious detectives always overlook things. How do I know you won't be anxious tonight?" She asked while slowly taking off her clothes.

"Now when have you known me to overlook any little detail, especially when we're both undercover together." He said grinning as he turned down the blankets.

He crawled into bed and pulled her down on top of him. They spent the greater part of 2 hours making love to each other.

Afterwards, she curled up next to him.

"Bobby." She whispered.

"Alex." He whispered back as he kissed her forehead.

"I've been thinking." She looked up into his eyes.

He looked back into hers. "About?"

"Us."

'_This is never a good start to any conversation.'_ Bobby thought.

She felt his heart beat quicken. "It's not a bad thing, as least I don't think it is." She added quickly.

She propped herself up on one elbow so she could see his face clearly. "You know how we're always staying at one place or another?"

He nodded.

"I was wondering what you thought of moving in with me?"

He looked at her strangely. "I ... don't know, Alex."

She felt her heart drop.

He cupped her chin with his hand and brought her eyes back up to his. "I don't think all of my books will fit in your house." He grinned at her briefly before adding, "You want to know what I really think?"

She nodded.

"I really think that we should go buy our own place ... together. Someplace that is home to both of us."

Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yes, really." He said smiling at her.

She grinned at him and said, "I love you."

"And I love you." He replied as he pulled her close to kiss her.

_Truth be told, he'd been trying to find a way to ask her about moving into a place of their own for about a month, but he couldn't find a way to bring the subject up. He was glad that she did because now he could concentrate on other important matters._


	20. Chapter 20

One of Our Own

Chapter 20

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: Seeing as how it's _Criminal Intent_, I thought I would add a chapter about the criminal in the story. I've been wanting to do it for a while now, and finally the right chapter (I hope), popped up that let me do it!

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. None of it is, because if it was, the last chapter would be on screen, and not all in my head! Please don't sue:)

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Chapter 20

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Driving around, he finally realized that they had went to her place for the night.

"Should have known." He mumbled to himself.

The whole situation amused him. He had been killing for so long that it had actually gotten boring to him. So he had upped the stakes by making a little game out of it. Most of the detectives he'd ran across in the past were idiot's, so he didn't figure that anyone would actually link all of them together. And that's why he did it, to flaunt himself at the cops.

But someone did link them and it was the two detectives who's attention he had wanted to avoid catching in the first place. Goren and Eames' reputation is known through out most of the state. His eccentricities. Her natural born cop instincts. Separately they were great cops, great detectives. Together, they seemed unstoppable.

"Well ... almost." He said talking to no one but himself.

He'd seen the two work together plenty of times, so he knew first hand how good they were. So when he realized it was them that put A and B together and came up with C, he panicked. He panicked so much that he actually put in his 2 weeks notice.

Then he remembered that he's never made a mistake, that there was nothing for them to find.

Actually, it was while he was staring at Eames' house, watching the lights being turned off as they went to bed, that he decided that he would have even more fun, after all, he would only be in this district for less than 2 weeks before he moved on anyway. They wouldn't figure out it was him before then.

Starting his car back up, he drove to his house while laughing at the plan that was formulating inside of his head.


	21. Chapter 21

One of Our Own

Chapter 21

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: Sorry it took so long to get this to you! My muse took a vacation, but she's back now ... at least I hope she is :) Don't have too many more chapters to go. :)

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me!

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Chapter 21

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The next day, when Olivia and Elliot arrived at work, Bobby and Alex were, once again, already there.

"How long have you two been here?" Elliot asked.

"A little over an hour and a half." Alex said.

"Do you two ever sleep?" Olivia asked while handing a coffee cup to her partner.

"On occasion." Alex said grinning.

By 8am, everyone but Fin and Munch were there. Ross hoped they would be back by this afternoon because there was a whole lot of paperwork to be done.

"I've been hiding from the Chief of D's for a couple of days, but he's managed to track me down. So, if I'm needed, I'll be in my office with him and Cragen." Ross said going out the door.

The morning was spent looking through the remaining folders. Goren was looking at the definite pile as it got bigger and bigger. He then started working on a time line, hoping that if he put one together, something would jump out at him as to who this person might be.

When lunch time came around, they all just ordered in. By 1:30 pm, Benson and Eames started working on the search again because their gut was telling them that the cases they had found so far that were definitely done by the same perp, were not all of them.

Around 2pm, Gorens' phone rang.

"Goren."

"Thank you, we'll be right there."

"That was Rogers. She's finally ready for us." He said to Stabler.

They both rose and headed towards the ME's office.

--------------

Wheeler and Logan emerged from the workroom around 2:30 pm.

"I swear, any more files and there won't be any where for us to sit." Logan said as he handed the few file folders that were not a match to Wheeler to put back where they belong.

"Well, we've already searched New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Ohio. I'm searching Vermont and she's searching West Virginia, so if you'd like to take a break from staring at paper and stare at a computer screen for a while, we could use the help." Olivia said.

"Sure, why not." Wheeler said heading towards her computer after the files were put away.

"Uh ... no thanks. The stores surrounding the victim's places sent over copies of their receipts and copies of their surveillance. I thought I'd take on the daunting task of starting to look through those." Logan said as he headed back into the work room with some boxes.

"Have fun." Eames said.

Logan shot a glare at her as he closed the door behind him. He sat down and picked up the stack of receipts that Quick-Mart had sent over, which was the store closest to where Anills lived. "This is going to be like looking for the worlds smallest needle in the world's largest hay stack." He muttered to himself. "If the needle even exists." He added groaning.

----------

Fin had already testified and was waiting in the lobby while Munch finished up his testimony.

When Munch did finally emerge from the courtroom, Fin was hanging up his cell phone.

"I hate defense attorney's." Munch said.

"So do I. Let's head back. Perkins wife called with some information."

Munch nodded as the two detectives walked out of the court house.

-----------------

Goren and Stabler walked into the ME's office where Roger's then led them to Sally Anills body.

"Detectives, either I'm getting to old for this job, or I need a vacation. I can't believe I missed this." Rogers said as she handed Goren a folder.

Goren passed the folder to Stabler and went straight to the body to get a good look himself.

"This ... was easy to miss." Goren said. "Was there anything in the wound?"

"I swabbed it and on the inside I found soap and shampoo. The brands are in the papers."

"Okay. What are you two talking about?" Elliot finally asked, tired of being kept in the dark.

Goren looked up at Elliot as if he just remembered he was even there. He moved over so Elliot could join him and Rogers.

"You said that Anills wasn't hit over the head, she was strangled." Goren paused for a minute as Stabler walked towards the body. "Turns out ... she was both."

He stopped and stared at Goren.

"The blood that CSU found had to have came from somewhere, and since head wounds bleed ... a lot, it made me curious."

"I don't remember anything about a head wound in the autopsy report, it would have said so if she had one."

"She has one, it's right here." Goren said pointing to a place on the lower part of her skull that was hid very well by her hair.

"How big?" Goren asked looking at Rogers.

"About ½ an inch wide and even though the wound looks as if it was done by a knife, it wasn't, unless it was a modified one, because it doesn't look like any type of kitchen or pocket knife I've ever seen."

"How in the hell did this get missed?" Stabler asked, completely beside himself.

"The killer," Rogers said, "used flesh colored stitches to sew her up. I sent them to CSU. And when I originally checked her head, her hair had hidden the stitches from sight. They weren't even raised. That was the best suturing job I'd ever seen done on anyone." Rogers admitted while she still kicked herself mentally for missing the wound.

"But she was strangled." Elliot said determined not to let that aspect of the autopsy report go.

Goren was very frustrated by now. Eames would have already understood. "Look, I'll ... I"ll explain it to everyone upstairs all at one time."

They had started to leave when Goren stopped and turned to look at Rogers. "Oh ... and you're not old." He winked at her.

"Why thank you detective!. You know, you better tell Detective Eames to hold on to you. Saying things like that might get you stolen." Rogers said grinning as she stood in front of a sink drying her hands off.

Goren felt his cheeks flush. "Sorry Rogers. I'm a one woman kind of man."

They both laughed leaving Stabler to look at them oddly.

------------

Author's Note: I asked one of my doctor friends if this type of wound was possible. After I assured him I wasn't planning on committing any crimes, he told me it was. It's hard to explain it on paper how I see the wound. Hopefully you get the general gist of it. LOL


	22. Chapter 22

One of Our Own

Chapter 22

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: This was originally supposed to be a part of Chapter 21, but I broke it up because it was really long.

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me!

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Chapter 22

----------

On their way back to Major Case, Stabler looked at Goren and finally asked, "So you and Detective Eames are dating?"

Goren was not expecting that question and just stared at him for a minute before he finally answered.

"Yes. We have been for a while."

"And your captain knows?"

Goren nodded. "You sound surprised."

"It's just ... well ... how do you two keep your personal and professional life separate and keep working together?"

"We just ... do." Goren said stepping off of the elevator.

"Oh ..." Stabler said following him.

Goren looked at Eames who instinctively got up from her desk and followed him into the work room. Everyone else had their curiosity peaked, so they followed suit as well.

Logan looked up in time to see his working space being violated and moved what he was working on to the side.

"Something new on Sally Anills was just brought to our attention by Rogers." Goren said as he opened his binder and pulled out the folder that he had taken from Stabler earlier and handed it to Eames.

Eames then looked at the pictures and the papers that went with it and said with a bit of a question in her voice, "She was stabbed?"

Goren nodded.

Eames then stood up without being asked to so that she could be demonstrated on.

"The killer was hid, lying in wait and attacked her as she was shutting her door. He stabbed her right here." He pointed to the area on Eames. "He used just enough force to bring her down, but not enough to leave a deep gash that would have been noticed. Rogers isn't sure what type of weapon it was that stabbed her, but she did say that it wasn't a kitchen or pocket knife."

Eames sat down since she was finished being used as a guinea pig.

"The guy then strangled her as he raped her. The heart _was_ still pumping, albeit probably very weakly, and the body was still trying to breathe but couldn't, which caused the petechial hemorrhaging in the eyes. When he was finished, he took her to the bathtub to bathe her and there he washed her hair. He then ... sewed up the wound with these." Goren tossed a sample of the stitches in an evidence bag onto the table. "I imagine he cleaned up her apartment while she was drying in the tub and then doused her in rubbing alcohol."

"How do you know that he gave her a bath?" Logan asked.

"She had soap and shampoo _inside_ the wound, which means he sewed it up afterwards." Eames said as she read the file.

Goren nodded.

Munch and Fin had came in while Goren was demonstrating on Eames. Fin looked around and spoke after he was sure Goren was finished talking. "Lacy Tyres told her partners' wife that she thought she was being followed."

"Oh?" Stabler asked.

"Yeah. She called me while my ass was sitting on a bench waiting for him to finish testifying." He nodded towards Munch.

They both took a seat.

"Mrs. Perkins said that Lacy had told her a week prior to her death that she felt like she was being watched. She also said she never told her husband because Lacy had said that she would tell him herself, and she had assumed that Lacy had."

"Why would she tell her partner's wife first and not her partner?" Wheeler asked.

"They had became good friends over the years." Fin said.

Wheeler nodded.

They all sat and compared notes for a couple more hours. Fin and Munch started helping Logan sort through receipts after some time had passed.

Goren had been staring at the picture of the wound, trying to figure out what it was when Munch spoke up. "Let me see it." He wanted to take a break from looking at the small numbers on the receipts for a few minutes.

Goren handed the picture to him and decided to start working on his time line again.

"I think I know what this is." Munch said after looking at it for a couple of minutes.

Everyone looked at him. "Well?" Logan said.

"It looks like it might be a box cutter. Look at the wound ... and the size would fit if he used the sharp end on top as he stabbed it into her."

Goren nodded. "I'll call CSU and have them get a hold of some box cutters and see if they can match it to the wound. Maybe we'll even get lucky and they'll be able to identify a brand if that is indeed what he used."

"You know, if Munch is right, we're never going to hear the end of this." Fin said.

Everyone laughed as Munch put on his 'hurt' face.

By 7pm, a few people had left for the evening. Goren continued to work on the time line and didn't want to go home just yet.

Alex had gotten up to retrieve something out of her desk when everyone that remained in the squad room heard her yell.

"BOBBY!"


	23. Chapter 23

One of Our Own

Chapter 23

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: I know that I promised a couple of people that this chapter would be up yesterday evening. Well, yesterday evening, I re-wrote most of the entire thing. My brother told me that it needed it! And now that I've re-read it, I can see that he was right. (Though, don't tell him that!) LOL So before I get maimed, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me!

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Chapter 23  
-----------

"BOBBY!"

That cry had made everyone run to Alex's side, but the big detective got there first, nearly trampling over top of Logan. He stood by Alex's side and followed her gaze.

Ross, who was still in the office, ran out to see what the commotion was about. What he saw made his stomach turn.

Goren took gloves out of his pocket and put them on before examining the package in front of him. It was addressed to both Eames and himself. That wasn't strange. They've had packages addressed to both of them before. However, what made this one special was the return address.

The Cop Killer  
49 Steps Ahead  
Can't Catch Me Drive  
East Coast, USA

"Don't open that. There might be a bomb in there." Alex said as Bobby started to un-tape the package.

He groaned as he resumed opening the box before anyone else could object. "I doubt there's a bomb in here."

The remaining detectives looked on in curiosity, as they had surrounded the desk by the time he had started to remove the tape.

After he carefully opened the box, he saw that there was a small cooler inside. He lifted the lid off of it once he had taken it out of the box and slowly looked around the inside of the cooler, as if mentally taking an inventory of it.

"There's got to be at least 40 micro containers of what looks like blood in here!" Alex said not really being heard by anyone.

Instead, everyone was focusing on the small typed note that was taped to the lid of the cooler.

Last To Leave, First To Arrive  
Two Big Shot Detectives Confused Have I  
While Work You Must, Play I Will  
For In Two Days, A Body Will Appear  
Under A Tree On A Hill

After what seemed like an eternity, Ross finally spoke. "Someone call CSU, we need this analyzed ... NOW!" He saw someone pick up a phone to make the call. "Where did this package come from? Surely the mail carrier would have noticed this return address."

"A mail carrier didn't drop it off, sir. A plain clothes did around 2 hours ago." Officer Morris volunteered.

Ross glared at him for a second before speaking again. "Go get a copy of the footage from this building for the past 3 hours."

Morris scurried off to do as he was told.

Goren frowned. Before Eames could ask what he was thinking about, he spoke. "There are 50 vials of blood in here. There should only be 49."

"Where did you get that number from?" Stabler asked.

Goren looked up and realized that the entire squad room was staring at him. He grabbed the box the cooler came in and pointed out the return address label. "It says 49 steps ahead. It's his way of saying he's gotten away with 49 murders. That 50th vial might contain his next victim's blood."

"Yeah, but which one is the 50th vial?" Benson asked.

Goren shook his head signaling he had no idea.

"Do you think she's still alive?" Stabler asked.

"There are many places that blood could have came from ... but no ... I don't think she's still alive." Goren replied.

When the CSU technician arrived, Goren told him that he wanted a profile done on each sample and he wanted each ran through CODIS and he wanted it done tonight.

"Guys, have you two noticed anyone around when you leave or come in?" Stabler asked. "Because the note said 'Last to leave, First to arrive'."

After thinking for a moment, both Goren and Eames shook their head no.

"I'm going to put a protective detail on you two." Ross said.

"That really won't be necessary." Goren and Eames both said at the same time.

"I'm not taking no for an answer. If those containers have the blood of each victim he's ever killed in them, then this guy is more dangerous than we thought." Ross said. "Someone call Morris and tell him to go ahead and grab the past couple of days worth of tapes, particularly the garage area."

The same officer that called CSU, once again, reached for the phone to call Officer Morris.

Before Eames and Goren could protest about the protective detail again, Ross walked into his office and shut the door.

"Dammit!" Goren yelled as he ran his fingers through his hair.

He then stalked back into the work room, followed by Eames, Stabler, Benson, and Logan.

Logan sat down and continued to look through receipts as did Benson. They were focusing on bleach, rubbing alcohol, possible box cutters, and gloves. They were also looking for lavender soap and lavender shampoo because that was what was inside of the wound, and Goren didn't remember seeing those items in Ms. Anill's house. The plan was to find the items in question on the massive amount of papers in front of them, if they even existed. Then they would match up the time of the purchase with the videos and see if it was the same person that bought all of the products. They hoped this strategy would pay off. But first, they had to make it though the first store's receipts.

When Officer Morris came back with a box load of tapes, he, Stabler, Goren and Eames went into the AV room to view them. After 20 minutes of searching the footage, Morris ID'd the plain clothes cop, then left the room.

But there was a problem.

The person that was carrying the box knew where each camera was located at and didn't look at the first one. Instead, he stared at his feet the entire trip. To make matter's worse, he had on work gloves, which meant that he didn't leave fingerprints ... anywhere.

"This guy is brilliant. Look here in the elevator ... " Goren paused the tape to show everyone what he was talking about. "This is a reflective surface. He never even glanced at it, which means we can't pull a reflection of him off of this tape."

Captain Ross walked in and looked at Goren. "It seems ... that you signed in and delivered that package yourself, Detective."

Goren grinned. "To be honest, after viewing these tapes, I would have expected no less."

The next 2 hours were spent looking through the tapes of the parking garage, the elevators, the hallways, and various other places. No one stood out as paying any particular interest to the two detectives. Goren didn't expect there to be anyone either. This guy obviously knew where all of the blind spots were located at.

All eventually wandered back to the work room where Logan and Benson were. Stabler joined in their receipt hunt as Eames and Goren continued to work on the time line.

After another half hour passed, Alex looked at the other 3 detectives that were staring at her and Bobby and said, "Guys, you can leave if you want to. Bobby and I are going to try to finish the time line tonight. Tomorrow, we can look for the missing cases that we haven't located yet."

"I think that's a good idea. I"m going cross eyed from looking at these." Logan nodded in the direction of the many stacks of receipts. "Who would have ever guessed that a Quick Mart sold so much stuff."

Bobby nodded. "And besides, we can't do anything with the package until CSU is finished analyzing those blood samples."

"You sure? I don't care to stay behind to see if anyone follows you two." Olivia said, partially feeling guilty about leaving because of the amount of work that was still left to do.

"We'll be fine. And besides, we'll have _escorts_ tonight." Alex said expressing her aggravated tone on the word escorts.

After they left, Goren looked at Eames. She could see the frustration in his eyes. "I know Bobby. This case is getting to me too."

Half an hour after everyone had left, they left as well. However, they did pay more attention to their surroundings than they usually did.

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Ok, so this isn't where the chapter was supposed to end, but it was very long, so I broke it up into two of them ... so go ahead, hit that little next button there at the bottom! You know you want to!


	24. Chapter 24

One of Our Own

Chapter 24

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: Okay, so this is the second half of the previous chapter. It was _forever_ long before the split. Trust me on that! LOL Enjoy, and remember, please put the pitchforks down before you finish reading this chapter.

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me!

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Chapter 24  
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"I wonder if they always work cases like that?" Olivia asked as she got into Elliot's car.

"Like what?"

"Early in, late out. Do neither have personal lives?"

"They are each other's personal lives." Elliot said as nonchalantly as he could, because in reality he wanted to burst out with this information as soon as he got in the car, mainly to see how Olivia would react.

"What?!"

"Yeah. I found out from the ME today."

"From the ME? So everyone knows?" Liv asked.

"Apparently." Stabler said, still gauging her reactions.

After about 10 minutes of driving in silence, Olivia looked at her partner. "You staying at my place tonight or going home to see your kids?"

"I spoke to them earlier. I thought I'd crash on your couch as long as you don't mind."

"You know that I don't mind." She said grinning.

After arriving back to her place, they settled on her couch and started watching TV. Elliot thought long and hard before he spoke again. "I asked Goren how they kept their professional and personal life from overlapping."

Olivia looked in Elliot's eyes, "What did he say?"

"That it was something that they do because they have to."

Olivia nodded.

Nothing more was said the rest of the night as they both let their minds cross over into the 'what if' territory.

-----------

That night, Bobby tossed and turned while he attempted to sleep. Alex knew that he wouldn't sleep peacefully until they apprehended this guy, especially now that he was taunting them personally.

She had done her best to hold him while he slept, but around 2am, he finally got up and went to the kitchen.

With a cup of coffee in hand, he sat on Alex's couch as he looked through the notes he had in his binder.

There was this overwhelming amount of information and it was making him _very_ frustrated. Around 4am, he got up to stretch. He looked out the window and saw the protective detail sitting in their car. He shook his head when he realized that one guy was asleep and the other looked as if he was singing, either that or carrying on a loud conversation with himself.

Just as he started to step back, he felt arms around his waist. "Did you sleep any?"

"Very little." He said as he turned to give Alex a kiss on her forehead.

She grabbed a coffee cup and came back to see him staring at some of his notes.

"Under a tree, on a hill." Goren said out loud.

"I have no idea where that could possibly be." Eames said.

"Neither do I."

----------

Later that morning at the office, Goren seemed to be making progress with the time line. It was taking a while because for each victim, he was using a map, a marker board, and his own notes to gather thoughts on.

Around 10am, Munch came in. "Sorry I was late. I made my witness sit with a sketch artist to try to get an image on our guy."

Everyone looked at him as he pulled out two pieces of paper.

"The Lone Ranger is the guy that asked about the dog and George Clooney is the guy that stood in her hallway not really doing anything."

"Wonderful." Fin muttered.

"I suppose I should have listened when he said he couldn't see their faces very well." Munch said as he threw the sketches down on the table.

"How do you know he was telling the truth?" Wheeler asked picking up the pictures.

"Because he has well over $500.00 in unpaid traffic tickets and I told him I'd try to help him out if he gave it his best shot. And if he didn't, I'd add another notch to my collar belt."

Stabler snickered because he knew how persuasive Munch could be.

-------------

By 1pm, they had a total of 51 case files that could possibly belong to this perp.

By 2pm, Goren had taken a break from the time line to look at maps. "These 7 places here have a tree on top of a hill in this borough." He said while placing push pins on the spots he was referring to.

Stabler looked up from the receipts that he was going through and stared at the map for a minute. He then added 2 more pins himself. "Same for these 2 places."

"As are these." Munch added as he placed 2 more pins himself.

"So we _possibly_ know the where. Now we just have to figure out the who and hope that their still alive." Benson said.

Everyone nodded.

While they had been adding pins to the map, someone had opened the door and handed a folder to Wheeler, probably because she was standing next to it.

Logan glanced over at his partner and saw that she had gone remarkedly pale in the face. "Wheeler, what's wrong?"

Wheeler was looking in the folder and barely heard the question.

Logan repeated himself. She still had no color on her face.

"I ... I know who the next victim is _going_ to be." She said sitting down.

Everyone stared at her as they waited for her to speak again.

Logan grabbed the folder from her and scanned the contents. "Oh ..." He said.

He looked at his partner, then after what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only a few seconds said, "Wheelers blood was in one of those vials."

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From one cliff-hanger to another ... don't you just love me? You can tell me how much so in a review! (Cackles insanely). Now remember, I told you to put your pitchforks down at the beginning of this chapter, that way you couldn't use them on me due to the suspense. (Scurries away from the torches.)


	25. Chapter 25

One of Our Own  
Chapter 25

A/N: Please read and review!

Side Note: (Sneaks in to leave this chapter then runs away _very_ quickly before sharp instruments start flying towards me.)

Disclaimers note: Law and Order Criminal Intent isn't mine. Please don't sue me!

------------  
Chapter 25  
------------

"What?!" Eames exclaimed. "Give me that!"

The folder contained the results of the package that was received the evening before. The lab report had 50 DNA profiles on it. Most did indeed have names that turned up in CODIS. CSU had compiled a master list of those names and the name at the bottom of the page said, 'Megan Wheeler, NYPD'.

"Did you use to date another cop?" Logan asked. He wasn't even sure why that was his first question, but sure enough, that's what came out of his mouth.

Goren, Eames, and Benson looked up from the folder that Eames had snatched to hear her response. Fin, Stabler, and Munch were already staring at her.

"Yes, but that was 2 years ago ... while I was working with the Feds. We only dated 6 months or so. We even broke up on good terms. Not many people know that and no, no one's approached me lately." She said anticipating the questions.

"Where did he get your blood from?" Fin asked.

"I don't know. I've not been hurt ... wait ... about 2 months ago, I donated blood. Could he have gotten it then?" Wheeler asked.

"Maybe." Fin said. "But that would mean that he's been targeting you for a while."

"Why is your DNA even in the system?" Munch asked, partially expecting an answer along the lines of _'mind your own business'_.

Wheeler thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe it was a mistake. I'll go and have them run it again and find out why I _am_ in the system." She said as she got up to leave.

"We need to tell the captain." Logan said.

"NO!" Wheeler said very loudly stopping near the door. "No. He's going to want me to have babysitters as well and I am to old to be babysat for. And besides ... I .. I can take care of myself."

"If we don't tell him then he's going to tear us a new one." Logan reminded her.

"Tell me what?" Ross said as he stood in the doorway, unintentionally blocking Wheeler's exit.

She sighed when she saw no way out and said resolutely. "That I might be the killer's ... next target."

Ross's eyes widened. "Damn right I would have tore each of you a new one. My office now."

She followed him into his office.

Everyone just stared at each other before Benson spoke up. "Let's match these blood samples with our victims and the time line."

--------

Ross agreed to let her stay on the case considering he needed everyone to try and solve it quickly. However, he assigned a "babysitter", as she called it, to follow and protect her.

After heading to the lab to give a blood sample so they could double check what the report had said, she headed to the lab supervisor's office to find out why she was in the system in the first place. When she was finished there, she headed back up to the squad room to join the rest of the group.

Walking into the room, Wheeler headed towards the board.

Everyone watched her as she filled in her name and information under the recent victim's name.

Not Married  
No Children  
Ex was a cop, but she has had boyfriends since then.  
She did like to go out on occasion.  
Record was impeccable minus the incident involving the NYFD.  
Had quite a few partners.

Under the column that asked if the victim was involved with her partner, Wheeler wrote no.

"That's just great!" Logan said. "Ruin my reputation why dontcha! Thanks a lot!" Logan made a face at his partner.

That got a few chuckles out of everyone, lightening the mood a little.

"I am in the system due to a glitch. According to the lab supervisor, my DNA was entered when I participated in a DNA dragnet while I was undercover 3 years ago. It should have been taken out after the case was solved, but it wasn't. Now, is there anything else you need to know?" Wheeler asked still shaking her head at Logan's comment.

Everyone pretty much said no. She then took a seat to help with what everyone else was doing.

By 5pm, the time line had grew due to the blood drops and names that had accompanied them.

Benson and Eames had done a stellar job at pulling and narrowing down the correct cases that the perp had committed.

All in all, they had 51 case files that matched the killer's MO.

Forty-eight of the vials in the cooler matched 48 of the files pulled. One of the blood samples was Wheeler's and the other one didn't pop a hit in CODIS. They also had 3 other case files that had the same killer written all over it. However, Goren wasn't sure why the guy didn't lay claim to those as well.

"Can blood even be kept that long?" Fin asked breaking the silence. "That time line goes back 11 years!"

"In perfect conditions it can be done so long as the person knows what he's doing, which it's obvious he does." Goren replied.

"This case is giving me a migraine." Eames said as she dropped her pen on the table.

"Did any names overlap on a lot of the cases?" Goren asked.

Benson, Eames, and Logan all said no.

"He's taunting us. Toying with us." Goren said. "He's near perfect at what he does, but with the sheer _amount_ of bodies here, surely this man has made a mistake somewhere. We _have_ to find it if we want to catch him." He sat down to go through the files once again. '_There has to be a connection here. Why can't I see it?'_ Goren thought to himself.

As time dwindled into the later hours, one by one, the detectives all went home. Finally it was down to Goren, Eames, and Wheeler.

Wheeler looked out the door to see the trio's protective detail playing cards since they didn't have to pay as much attention in a police squad room. Ross had refused to remove Goren and Eames' detail even though they tried to tell him that this guy hasn't attacked two at one time before. Ross's response was, "better safe than sorry".

"Alright you two, It's 10pm. I'm going for food then I'm going home. See you both in the morning."

"Please be careful tonight." Eames said.

Wheeler nodded.

Around midnight, Goren looked up from his thirty some odd folder and saw that Eames had fallen asleep with her head on the table. He had told her to go home shortly after Wheeler had left, but she didn't. She said she would stay and help. He knew that she was worried about Wheeler, as was he. Looking out the door he saw the that the two guys that were supposed to tail them had moved on to a chess game. When his stomach growled, he realized that he and Alex didn't have dinner so he walked over to the obviously bored cops with a proposition.

"Hey guys. If I promise that we won't go anywhere, can you two run out and get us food? I'll even pay for yours!"

"You know as well as I do that we can't let you two out of our sight. We were assigned to keep you and Detective Eames safe." The younger of the two said.

"We're in a squad room with other cops and detectives present. Plus, this will let you two get up and stretch your legs. It doesn't look like we'll be leaving anytime soon." Goren said as he took money out of his wallet. "There's a Ty food place down the street that's open 24/7. You can get something there."

Giving in, the two cops left to go get some food, each secretly grateful to get some fresh air.

Goren rejoined Eames and woke her up when the food arrived. After they ate, they both continued to work.

"These 3 cases," Goren said as he handed the folder's to Eames, "Why didn't he claim them?"

Eames shook her head as Goren continued to think out loud.

"They fit on the time line, have the same ear marks as the other victim's, hell, they even fit on the map. This guy is smart ... he had to have a reason ... Let's see ... 7 ... 12 ... and ... 1. I wonder if he thinks there is something within these case files that can lead us to him. Maybe that's why he didn't put their blood in the cooler!"

Goren grinned as he dived into one of the files as did Eames who was suddenly more awake at the possible revelation.

--------------

Preparing everything in advance, he was trying to be as careful as possible about making sure nothing was left behind. He had to change his order of doing things because of the time constraint he had given himself. It was a challenge, and he liked challenges. Plus, he didn't want to disappoint anyone by having her show up at work alive the next day.

While he was getting everything ready, he patted himself on the back because of how he had gotten into the house, especially with everyone outside. "I always knew that most cops were idiots." He mumbled to himself. "Just goes to show that I was right."

After he was set up, he found a spot to hide in. He then sat and waited for her to come home.

He waited for her to walk right into his arms.

-------------

Arriving home, Wheeler noticed someone familiar sitting in a car across from her house. She walked over to it and tapped on the window.

"I already have two sitters. I don't need a third." She said grinning at her partner.

"Those guys look like babies. I doubt they could protect a fly from a fly swatter." Logan said. "Go in, get some rest. I'll be out here all night freckle face." He said as he rolled up his car window.

She smiled because she knew that she _would_ rest a tad easier knowing that he was outside all night.

---------------

Opening her door, she threw her keys down on the side table. She then turned to close the door. Reaching over, she flipped on the light switch, which made everything go pitch black.

'_That's not right. Wait, what's happening to me. Can't breathe ... Get ... off of ... me.'_ Using what strength she had left, she kicked the person that had climbed on top of her, off of her. Before she had a chance to even think about getting away, she felt hands around her neck. _'Must breathe ... must get help ... must live ... must ...'_


End file.
